Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Skip to main content
  • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Franca Trubiano

The building industry lacks a holistic and integrated method for assessing the possible human health risks attendant to using materials that have been verified as toxic. In particular, it lacks an open-source, interactive interface for... more
The building industry lacks a holistic and integrated method for assessing the possible human health risks attendant to using materials that have been verified as toxic. In particular, it lacks an open-source, interactive interface for measuring the health risks associated with sourcing, manufacturing, selecting, installing, using, maintaining, and disposing of building-based polymers. Because of their high degree of chemical synthesis, polymers are typically more toxic than wood, glass, or concrete; yet architects, engineers, builders, clients, and the general public remain poorly informed about the deadly accumulation of synthetic polymers that originate in the building industry and that pervade our air, water, and bodies. This question should be central to the very definition and practice of life-cycle assessment, and this chapter outlines a process for developing an industry-based life-cycle index of human health in building (LCI-HHB). After all, traditional LCAs are of little help to anyone not healthy enough to enjoy them.
Editoral framing of the special issue of ENQ on PRECARITY: PhD conference on architectural research at the limits of technology, project-making, and history/theory held on APRIL 22-23, 2022 and organized and sponsored by the PhD Program... more
Editoral framing of the special issue of ENQ on PRECARITY: PhD conference on architectural research at the limits of technology, project-making, and history/theory held on APRIL 22-23, 2022 and organized and sponsored by the PhD Program in Architecture at UPENN, Weitzman School of Design
The ubiquitous use of plastics in architectural design and construction obfuscates the very real human health risks which exist when polymers—derived from petroleum, coal, or natural gas—are used in the building industry. For more than... more
The ubiquitous use of plastics in architectural design and construction obfuscates the very real human health risks which exist when polymers—derived from petroleum, coal, or natural gas—are used in the building industry. For more than fifty years, a majority of construction materials have been engineered using polymers for the purposes of achieving a range of advanced performance capacities. These materials are widely manipulated using fossil fuel derivatives for augmenting their structural strength, moisture resistance, form finding, or general resistance to weathering. Polyvinyl chlorides, for example, are used in plumbing supplies, exterior sheathing, interior surfaces, furniture, and landscaping, for these reasons. Indeed, nearly everything in our built environment is permeated by chemicals derived from fossil fuels. This is obviously problematic for carbon emissions: it is all the more critical in what concerns human health. More than half a century following the deliberate an...
ABSTRACT
The research question at the center of this paper was initiated in response to my participation in a larger Department of Energy funded project awarded to the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings (GPIC).... more
The research question at the center of this paper was initiated in response to my participation in a larger Department of Energy funded project awarded to the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings (GPIC). My particular research initiatives within GPIC are focused on developing a roadmap of use by architects, engineers, builders and building owners for the successful implementation and market adoption of rigorous Integrated Design Practices in the energy efficient retrofit of buildings in a 10 county region of the Mid Atlantic region, that includes the city of Philadelphia and its Navy Yard. A group of computer scientists and building engineers comprise the Integrated Technologies Team, whose “subtask [is to] utilize models, tools, and methods developed by the Design Tools Team for rapid synthesis of systems.” 1 And a sub-group of researchers from the Architecture Department at the University of Pennsylvania is more broadly devising innovative Integra...
into or possibly reveal layers beyond the finished product. An excellent example can be found on the pages of the Emerson College project(68–69), with a layering of white construction drawings, and barely visible black drawings against... more
into or possibly reveal layers beyond the finished product. An excellent example can be found on the pages of the Emerson College project(68–69), with a layering of white construction drawings, and barely visible black drawings against the dark gray page. Program spaces are filled with documents and text as if the spaces themselves were pochéd with artifacts of the process. These pages exist as collages, harkening back to the “construction” drawings of earlier projects in Volume I but now use the contract documents folded back into the digital representation. Revision clouds appear with “presentation drawings,” acknowledging design evolutions, and negotiations required to take concept to physical reality. These notations deny the glossy imagery of completed buildings most associated with the studio and recall the vellum pages in prior volumes, minus the literal transparency. On several white pages, diagrams allude to technological integration within the workflow by describing comple...
The building industry lacks a holistic and integrated method for assessing the possible human health risks attendant to using materials that have been verified as toxic. In particular, it lacks an open-source, interactive interface for... more
The building industry lacks a holistic and integrated method for assessing the possible human health risks attendant to using materials that have been verified as toxic. In particular, it lacks an open-source, interactive interface for measuring the health risks associated with sourcing, manufacturing, selecting, installing, using, maintaining, and disposing of building-based polymers. Because of their high degree of chemical synthesis, polymers are typically more toxic than wood, glass, or concrete; yet architects, engineers, builders, clients, and the general public remain poorly informed about the deadly accumulation of synthetic polymers that originate in the building industry and that pervade our air, water, and bodies. This question should be central to the very definition and practice of life-cycle assessment, and this chapter outlines a process for developing an industry-based life-cycle index of human health in building (LCI-HHB). After all, traditional LCAs are of little h...
Giovanni Battista Piranesi\u27s architectural representations have made significant contributions to the historiography of early modern architecture. His achievements in this regard continue to enthrall many a contemporary scholar... more
Giovanni Battista Piranesi\u27s architectural representations have made significant contributions to the historiography of early modern architecture. His achievements in this regard continue to enthrall many a contemporary scholar solicitous in identifying the larger polemical and theoretical context within which he imaginatively depicted architectural figures. The following dissertation maintains Piranesi\u27s inventive manner was largely characterized by his return to the prodigious number of ruins which demonstrated the presence in antiquity of forms of figuration incongruous, licentious and capricious. So vast had been their numbers, Piranesi adopted their eccentric characteristics in the creation of his own genres of representation. And revealing the extent to which he recognized in their midst ancient modes of ‘grotesque’ figuration is the aim of this dissertation. ^ Foremost in his embrace of antiquity had been the enthusiasm with which he penned hundreds of pages of text and etched thousands of ornamental fragments, sites which had privileged architecture\u27s narrative dimension. His obsessive preoccupation with paintings, sculptures and furnishings revealed, moreover, an unremitting fascination for ornamental surfaces. In this regard, he explored two distinct settings; the subterranean grotto and the pastoral landscape, locations in the Roman campagnia to which he had been compulsively attracted throughout his career as both had demonstrated the presence in antiquity of a plethora of grotesqueries whose meaning Piranesi sought to decipher. ^ To this end, he undertook a journey to the origins of ornaments in ancient ritual practices. Seminal in this regard had been the ancient city of Herculaneum in whose excavated fragments a culture endowed with a surplus of ‘licentious’ manners had been recognized. During the 18th century this ancient territory\u27s capricious proclivity was theoretically construed. And in hundreds of ornamental artifacts, forms of figuration were celebrated for their apotropaic functions. Ancient griffins, serpents, satyrs and sphinxes endowed with talismanic powers proliferated throughout the Bay of Naples, and their presence evidenced ancient forms of Bacchic worship. Piranesi\u27s unequivocal attention to this family of figures is the focus of this dissertation. For with every frenetic act of interlacing, he sought to resurface a narrative dimension of architectural ornaments increasingly obfuscated by modernity.
ABSTRACT
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT
Research Interests:
This paper communicates the results of an architectural research project which sought innovative design strategies for achieving energy and resource efficiencies in water management systems traditionally used in single-family housing. It... more
This paper communicates the results of an architectural research project which sought innovative design strategies for achieving energy and resource efficiencies in water management systems traditionally used in single-family housing. It describes the engineering of an efficient, multifaceted, and fully integrated water management system for a domesticenvironment of 800 sq. ft., entirely powered by solar energy. The four innovations whose details are conveyed include the use of alternate materials for piping distribution and collection, the use of water in solar energy generation, the design of a building skin which capitalizes on water’s capacity to store heat as well as the design of a ecological groundscape which re-usesand filters waste water and rain water.Keywords: energy, plumbing, home design
Editor's Preface: High Performance Homes: Metrics, Ethics and Design Franca Trubiano Introduction: Household Power: How Much is Enough? William W Braham Part 1: Building Envelopes, New Materials and Architectural Design 1.1 Energy... more
Editor's Preface: High Performance Homes: Metrics, Ethics and Design Franca Trubiano Introduction: Household Power: How Much is Enough? William W Braham Part 1: Building Envelopes, New Materials and Architectural Design 1.1 Energy Free Architectural Design - The Case of PassivHaus and Double Skin Facades Franca Trubiano 1.2 Translucent Building Skins - Advancing the Technology of Light Transmission Franca Trubiano 1.3 Responsive Building Envelopes: Characteristics and Evolving Paradigms Kathy Velikov and Geoffrey Thun 1.4 Nano-Materials + Super Insulator = Aerogel Franca Trubiano Part 2: Renewable Energies, Building Systems and Simulations 2.1 The Design Integration of Renewable Energies Franca Trubiano and Russell Gentry 2.2 Systems Integrated Photovoltaics, SIPV Jeffrey Brownson 2.3 Building Systems, Controls and Automation Russell Gentry 2.4 Building Performance and Computational Simulation Yun Kyu Yi Part 3: Integrated Practice and Residential Construction 3.1 Integrated Project Delivery - Contracting for High Performance Ryan Smith and Joerg Rugemer 3.2 Energy and the Integrative Design Process, Defining the Team of Experts Lisa Iulo 3.3 The Construction of Low Energy Prefabricated Housing in Denmark Anne Beim and Kasper Sanchez Vibaek 3.4 From Modeling to Making, Parametric Design and Digital Fabrication Tristan Al-Haddad Part 4: High Performance Homes: Case Studies 4.1 LumenHaus and the Eclipsis Sun Control System Robert Dunay, Joseph Wheeler and Robert Schubert 4.2 Project Icarus: Optimizing Light and Energy in the Design of a Translucent Roof Franca Trubiano 4.3 North House: Climate Responsive Envelope and Control System Geoffrey Thun and Kathy Velikov 4.4 Modular Building Three Scales/Three Strategies Lisa Iulo
Architectural technology is defined by the convergence of matter and energy; by the materials with which buildings are built and by the exchanges of heat and power which organize and order said materials. Dynamically bound, both... more
Architectural technology is defined by the convergence of matter and energy; by the materials with which buildings are built and by the exchanges of heat and power which organize and order said materials. Dynamically bound, both theoretically and physically, matter and energy find confluence in the field circumscribed by the design and construction of ecologically responsive building envelopes. Contributing more broadly to the qualitative and quantitative measure of a building’s sustainability, its building skin significantly contributes to its energy equation. Paradoxically, this is the architectural component most given to ever-greater levels of transparency and dematerialization. Designers and their clients continue to be committed to the construction of ever more immaterial works of architecture. Built lighter and thinner than ever before, these sophisticated building envelopes often result in decidedly negative consequences for the energy performance of structures in which they are found. 
This paper discusses the design work of graduate architecture students who invented and devised innovative solutions for the construction of thermally responsive building envelopes. They embraced the challenge of designing in a culture of transparency and dematerialization without compromise to the building’s energy balance. The technology of translucent polymer fluoroethylene sheets films, thermochromic films, and injection molded polycarbonates were investigated during the course of the seminar with the goal of designing high performing building envelopes at the convergence of Matter + Energy. The projects here presented make evident the role which each can play in the construction of energy appropriate skins.
Research Interests:
This paper details an initial set of observations resulting from the launch of five building retrofit Demonstration Projects currently underway for deploying the Integrated Design (ID) Advanced Energy Retrofit (AER) Roadmap; a market... more
This paper details an initial set of observations resulting from the launch of five building retrofit Demonstration Projects currently underway for deploying the Integrated Design (ID) Advanced Energy Retrofit (AER) Roadmap; a market oriented product developed by the authors of this paper for accelerating the pace of advanced energy retrofits in the United States (US). This project is one of many dedicated to improving the energy profile of existing buildings at the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation (CBEI) - formerly the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub - a research initiative sponsored by the Building Technologies Office of the US Department of Energy.
Achieving significant energy reductions in the renovation of small to medium-sized commercial building remains an elusive goal, albeit an important one. To this end, the three-part document suite that is the ID AER Roadmap was conceived to offer all participants involved in the actual design, construction and operations of a retrofit project the management based tools to create a collaborative, replicable process that assures greater energy reductions following the retrofit of a building’s various material and engineering systems. This paper discusses a number of important initial results from the testing and verification of the Roadmap’s seven ID process protocols. Discussed in some detail is the particular method by which each of the five project teams has employed the various components of the ID AER Roadmap, and where instructive, client profiles and building type differences will be identified to the extent that they impact the execution of the ID protocols of the AER Roadmap.
Research Interests:
Today’s commercial building market can ill afford the renovation of buildings by industry professionals that use archaic methods and uniformed approaches that neglect to account for the building’s energy consumption. This paper advances a... more
Today’s commercial building market can ill afford the renovation of buildings by industry professionals that use
archaic methods and uniformed approaches that neglect to account for the building’s energy consumption. This
paper advances a comprehensive solution for minimizing energy consumption in existing small to medium-sized
commercial buildings. Committed to increasing the number of advanced energy retrofits completed in the United
States over the next 20 years, this research team has over the past two years developed an Integrated Design
Roadmap for advanced energy retrofits designed to assist project teams and building owners in achieving deep
energy savings in the renovation of existing buildings. The paper’s content was produced as part of a research
initiative of the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation (formerly the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub) and
sponsored by the United States (US) Department of Energy since 2011.
The Integrated Design (ID) Advanced Energy Retrofit (AER) Roadmap discussed in this paper contains a series of
process documents of use to owners, project managers, financial investors, architecture, engineering, and
construction (AEC) professionals, as well as energy modeling and measurement consultants involved in the
completion of an AER, with targeted savings of 50% energy use against its pre-retrofit baseline consumption. This
paper will describe the preliminary research required in the design of the ID AER Roadmap, as well as the overall
document suite. The ID AER Roadmap document suite includes an Overview brochure that introduces the principle
ID concepts, as well as a Reference Manual that details these concepts, with the final component being a Project
Team Guide of use to professionals in the building industry.
The ID AER Roadmap document suite promotes the adoption of Integrated Design principles during the completion
of an advanced energy retrofit. It identifies a set of seven process-based protocols key to the success of any AER,
the details of which are described in this paper. The research which has served as a foundation for the Roadmap’s
development includes a national survey of advanced energy retrofits completed in the US since the year 2000, a
series of interviews of leading professionals who practice Integrated Design, and direct engagement with members
of the AEC industry to introduce the Roadmap to a larger market audience.
Research Interests:
This paper details the deployment of the Integrated Design (ID) Advanced Energy Retrofit (AER) Roadmap for the energy efficient renovation of small to medium-sized commercial buildings in the United States. The ID process discussed in... more
This paper details the deployment of the Integrated Design (ID) Advanced Energy Retrofit (AER) Roadmap for the
energy efficient renovation of small to medium-sized commercial buildings in the United States. The ID process
discussed in this paper was developed as part of a suite of market targeted process documents and is the result of
research sponsored by the United States (US) Department of Energy at the CBEI – Consortium for Building Energy
Innovation (formerly the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub), since 2012. The three-tiered document suite instructs and
empowers owners, project managers, financial investors, architecture, engineering and construction professionals, as
well as energy modeling and measurement consultants with information on the value of ID in the process of
completing an AER.
This paper offers a detailed description of the ID AER Roadmap Project Team Guide intended for use by
professionals in the advanced energy retrofit field. More broadly, the ID AER Roadmap document suite includes an
Overview brochure that introduces ID concepts, as well as a Reference Manual that details these concepts. The third
part of the suite of documents is the Project Team Guide, which is the particular focus of this paper. It outlines the
recommended ID process for all contracted participants of an AER and helps said participants identify the shared
priorities and goals of value to all team members. The Project Team Guide is structured into five distinct phases
with each phase further defined by a Resource Gathering (RG) stage and/or a Collaborative Meeting (CM) stage.
Additionally, this paper introduces a coordinated initiative to test and verify the process protocols developed in the
Project Team Guide. By way of five AER demonstration projects, also funded by the US Department of Energy, the
ID AER Roadmap is being challenged and revised in the market. These projects involve the participation of public
and private building owners, who range from large municipalities to small non-profits, and they represent a variety
of building uses including institutional, commercial, and transportation. The scope of retrofit work for each project
includes a building envelope and systems based renovation focused on achieving maximum energy saving. Typical
energy conservation measures being considered include the replacement of heating and lighting systems, and the
introduction of controls and sensors.
These demonstration projects test and verify the structure of the protocols defined in the ID AER Roadmap including
the proposed timeline of activities in each of the five phases, the recommended list of participants, and the
Checklists and Guidelines that help organize all of the RG and CM activities and deliverables. Lastly, as part of the
testing process, our research group facilitates the comprehension of ID principles and the actual use of the Roadmap documents by the project teams. Throughout the demonstration process, client feedback is documented via
recordings, project team surveys, and summaries of collaborative meetings. Actionable observations are made and
modifications to the Roadmap are registered. The goal of which is to create a verified process-based product for the
market of small to medium-sized buildings that is articulate and robust enough to ensure an increase in the number
of advanced energy retrofits completed in the decades to come.
Research Interests:
Realigning the design of building envelopes within the measures of air, light and heat has rendered possible an inventive form of practice whose benefits are far in excess of the metrics of data and analysis. For many of its most advanced... more
Realigning the design of building envelopes within the measures of air, light and
heat has rendered possible an inventive form of practice whose benefits are far in excess of
the metrics of data and analysis. For many of its most advanced practitioners, the
contemporary design of facades engages the true potential of “performance” when it
deepens, broadens and complicates the theoretical dimension of this most liminal of
surfaces. Of particular interest to this paper is a discussion of new theoretical paradigms
associated with the design and operation of high performance envelopes of which four
characteristics of this emergent sub-discipline are herein examined. To begin with, the way
in which building envelopes are no longer separators, dividers and barriers between a
building’s interior and exterior conditions, but rather, “spatially” defined environments that
fully engage the totality of a building’s engineering systems, is discussed. Cantilevered
Louvers, Double Skin Facades and Hybrid Conditioned Atria are representative of this new
paradigm as is the use of Responsive Technologies to optimize their behaviors. Lastly, the
paper examines the rise of the new integrated design building envelope professional called
upon to deliver ever-better performing skins, whether in the guise of energy modeler,
climate engineer or façade construction specialist. Hence, this paper develops a theoretical
structure within which to describe, analyze and interpret the values made possible by this
new and expanding field of performance based envelopes
Research Interests:
This paper discusses a set of critical questions resulting from a pedagogical initiative to transform the teaching of Construction Technology at the University of Pennsylvania. Inspired by vast changes in the production and dissemination... more
This paper discusses a set of critical questions resulting from a pedagogical initiative to transform the
teaching of Construction Technology at the University of Pennsylvania. Inspired by vast changes in the
production and dissemination of construction documents used by members of the AEC (Architecture,
Engineering and Construction) industry, a new approach has been devised for teaching core technology
courses in the professional masters program at PennDesign. Essential to its reconceptualization was the
decision to align the delivery of course content with learning methods more commensurate with the
practice of ‘design’. To this end, tutorials, handbooks and instructional videos educating students in
modeling techniques associated with Building Information Modeling have been developed and tested.
These are the subjects of this paper and more broadly it investigates the role ‘data’ can play in reconciling
the long-standing divide between ‘design’ and ‘construction’, between a project’s conceptualization and its
materialization.
Research Interests:
This paper outlines a digital design and simulationbased process conceived and tested, for the automation of environmentally responsive building ‘forms’, optimized for Energy and Lighting performance. The process sequences 4 different... more
This paper outlines a digital design and simulationbased
process conceived and tested, for the
automation of environmentally responsive building
‘forms’, optimized for Energy and Lighting
performance. The process sequences 4 different
modeling and simulation programs to evaluate
energy loads and lighting levels of a typical office
building whose forms are ‘generated’ by an
automated script running Rhino + Grasshopper,
EnergyPlus, MATLAB and RADIANCE. Deployed
in a coordinated fashion, the programs automate the
delivery of a building’s overall volumetric
dimensions, using a Genetic Algorithm and a Single
Objective Function. This is the process whose,
development, deployment and testing are discussed
in this paper.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: