BT - Bundle collectionofofMSc MSctheses thesis of the students of Building Technology AAcollection
2020 2021
Dear Reader, In front of you lies the very second edition of the BT-Bundle. This publication was compiled by the 27th Board of Praktijkvereniging BouT, the study association of the MSc Building Technology Track at the Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft. The BT Bundle showcases thesis made by our graduates. This bundle includes work from students who completed their thesis between July 2021 and September 2021. As the interests and field of Building Technology expands, the interdisciplinary topics that students focus on also evolve. This foreshadows how the disciplines of BT are changing through technology and the demands of the built environment. This year the topics were represented as such: Facades & Product Energy & Climate Transparent structures / Glass Design Circular Building Design Computational Design Nature-Inclusive Design Sustainable Structures We would like to thank all the students who voluntarily took the time to create their contributions and for trusting their work in our hands. We hope that everyone who is reading this will gain more insight and be inspired by how Building Technology shapes our built environment.
Compiled by: Shreyas Vadodaria - Education Chair, 27th BouT Board
Table of Contents Green Light District: Energy renovation of monumental buildings by Sophie van Hattum p. 6 Digital Solutions for a Circular Facade Economy by Abhishek Holla
p. 7
Energy Reduction Facade Renovation System for different building typologies and climates by Lason Vovos
p. 8
High Pressure Laminated BuildingIntegrated PhotoVoltaics Facade System by Dion van Vlerken
p. 9
Hybrid Glass Block Load bearing and thermally sound glass block by Twinkle Nathani
p. 10
Reuse of Secondary Materials
Enabling and Assessing ‘Reuse Secondary Materials’ as a Circular Approach for the Facade Industry
by Neha Gupta
p. 11
Housing refurbishment using the Earht, Wind & Fire Syatem by Yamini Patidar
p. 12
Naturally Tokyo: found in translation? by Puji Nata Djaja
p. 13
Earth, Wind and Fire System
p. 14
Refurbishment of an Office Building in the Netherlands
by Shriya Balakrishnan
Green roof tile
p. 15
Improving local biodiversity
by Jorrit Parmentier
Solar Morphing Kinectic Envelope by Christina Koukelli
p. 16 p. 17
Green Light District: Energy renovation of monumental buildings By 2050 the municipality of Amsterdam plans to become climate neutral. The historic city center of Amsterdam poses a challenge in this ambition, as it is home to numerous monumental buildings. Conservation is the starting point for the renovation of monumental buildings and consequently additional regulations are in place. Furthermore, each building is unique, thus renovation of monuments requires customization, making it more expensive and unattractive. Research has shown that due to restricted renovation possibilities, the indoor comfort and energy performance of monumental buildings are often below standard. This research aims to create an energy-neutral renovation for a monumental building in the oldest neighborhood of Amsterdam: the Burgwallen-Oude Zijde. Resulting in the following research question: “How can monumental buildings be renovated to become energy neutral and comfortable for the users, whilst preserving the monumental status?” A renovation design is made for a mixed-use monumental building and elaborated into a generic approach. Through careful analysis of the Oudezijds Voorburgwal 30, the chosen case study building, it was determined that a significant part of the building is not monumental. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the energy usage of the building is relatively high, and that the indoor comfort is currently not up to standard. To improve the energy performance and indoor comfort, a design is proposed in which different design measures are suggested. The design makes use of
Heating system of front house
Name Graduation year Tutors 6
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the potential of the neighborhood as it uses aquathermal heat (LT) from the canal in combination with heat pumps as basis for the heating of the building. The building is insulated using a combination of exterior and interior insulation, crack & seam filling, and double-glazed windows. For the monumental parts of the building a wall heating system is proposed, in which the walls are slightly heated to minimize energy losses to the exterior (‘WarmBouwen’ concept’). Energy is produced on site using PV roof tiles on the South facing roofs and several other small design interventions are proposed. Evaluation of the proposed design reveals that none of the identified monumental elements are altered, the energy demand of the building is lowered by 73% and that the indoor comfort increases significantly. By following the proposed generic approach of (1) identifying the heritage values, (2) assessing the current performance of the building, (3) creating concept designs, (4) finalizing the design, and (5) evaluating the design, the remaining energy demand of the proposed design for the Oudezijds Voorburgwal 30 has not been reduced to zero and is thus not energy neutral. This is mostly due to restricted renovation possibilities and limited roof area for on-site energy production. The proposed design does make the Oudezijds Voorburgwal 30 BENG compliant: a step in the right direction, but for monumental buildings to become energy neutral a fairer middle ground between conservation and sustainability should be found. We should ask ourselves: how far should one go to preserve the past if it limits or damages our future?
Facade insulation
“WarmBouwen” concept
Sophie van Hattum 2021 Andy van den Dobbelsteen & Regina Bokel
Digital Solutions for a Circular Facade Economy To progress towards going completely Circular by the year 2050, VMRG, a Dutch Metal Facade Association, has initiated several pilot projects. These include business models implemented with digital technology such as material passports(Cirlinq) and predictive maintenance using photogrammetry(FaSa). My research proposed a framework to integrate them to determine the re-life option with the higest value at the Facade’s End of Service(EoS). This multi-disciplinary research tackles this with generating a framework using surveys and interviews with stakeholders in the supply chain of a Facade. The framework was then demonstrated using mock wireframe of the platform using data from the CiTG East Facade in the TU Delft campus.
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The research proposal includes 1. A data collection framework 2. Data structure 3. Data Templates Per stakeholder 4.Schematic wireframes of the digital platforms. The research that was conducted represents the first steps towards a Digital Twin of the Facade’s Supply chain concluded in the form of recommendations to the Dutch Metal Facade industry.
A Schematic overview of the proposed framework for facade product passports .
Conceptual wireframe of the Passport platforms indicating the data structure and proposed ‘instance tree’ view.
A Schematic overview of the End of Service Assessment Framework
Conceptual wireframe of the EoS Assessment platform as an extension to the Facade Product passport.
Abhishek Holla Name 2021 Graduation year Michela Turrin, Juan Azcarate, Peter Van Oosterom, Monique Fledderman Tutors 7
High Pressure Laminate BuildingIntegrated PhotoVoltaics Facade System In order to meet the Dutch government’s National Climate Agreement targets, the amount of greenhouse gas generated in the Netherlands will have to decrease significantly. Part of the greenhouse gas emissions is the generation of electricity using fossil fuels. These will have to be replaced by a sustainable alternatives, such as solar power. One of the possibilities for generating electricity is by integrating PhotoVoltaics into a High Pressure Laminate facade panel. However, this has an impact on the installation of the product and has other requirements. In this master thesis, research has been done into the requirements, design and development of an easy-to-use facade system for mounting High Pressure Laminate facade panels with integrated PhotoVoltaics on the facade. The research is divided into several phases. In the first phase, the requirements for the High Pressure Laminate BuildingIntegrated facade system are researched trough literature research. In the second phase, the concept for the facade system has been developed and in the third phase of the research, prototypes were made for each aspect of the concept development. These prototypes were made with a 3D printer. This allowed the prototypes to be analysed in terms of their
Tensile test
Finite Element Analysis DIANA
Name Graduation year Tutors 8
3D printer
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functionality. Because this method was very accessible, there was the possibility to make many prototypes. Next, a material analysis was made to determine the most suitable materials for the facade system. The material PLA, used to develop the prototypes, did not meet all the durability properties. In the material analysis, only materials that satisfied the durability properties were analysed. The mechanical characteristics of these materials were then compared with those of PLA, and the materials with approximately the same characteristics as PLA were selected to be used in the facade system. After that, the prototypes were structurally tested. This was done by means of a Finite Element Analysis. The first analysis was with the final prototype from the chapter ‘prototyping’. Next, several iterations were made until the design met all the requirements. The last iteration was used to do a practical test. This practical test gave a good insight into the actual structural strength of the design. With the information from the practical test, the design was adjusted again and analysed by means of a Finite Element Analysis. After all parts met the functional and structural requirements, they were combined into the final design of the High Pressure Laminate Building-Integrated PhotoVoltaics facade system.
Close-up mock-up
Final design
Dion van Vlerken 2021 Marcel Bilow & Ate Snijder
Hybrid Glass Block
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Load bearing and thermally sound glass block Glass’s use as a building material dates to ancient times. It has been extensively used in various forms in the built environment due to its innate transparency, which allows for unhindered light in a space and visual connectivity between the inside and outside. Since then, technologies in glass have constantly been developing to adapt to the changing trends. This research aims
to develop a Hybrid block that can exhibit structural strength and meet modern energy criteria. The objective is to bridge the gap between solid glass brick’s stability and the hollow block’s efficiency. The present research does not conclude in a single suitable design option but rather two concepts that are then detailed to be applied in an existing scenario.
FUSION BLOCK The Fusion block consists of two parts; one a solid part that helps in transferring the load from one block to another and the other part is hollow that helps in enhancing the overall thermal performance.
U-Value: 1.89 W/m2K
Image showing design, thermal analysis, manufacturing and installation of Fusion Block. LATTICE BLOCK The Lattice block is developed to have multiple cavities, the advantage of this block is that the in-between layers provide stiffness to the geometry and alternative load path in case of failure so the structural performance is tremendously improved.
U-Value: 1.9 W/m2K
Image showing design, thermal analysis, manufacturing and installation of Lattice Block.
Name Graduation year Tutors
Twinkle Nathani 2021 Dr. ir. Faidra Oikonomopoulou & Dr. ir. Martin Tenpierik 9
Reuse of Secondary Materials
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Enabling and Assessing ‘Reuse of Secondary Materials’ as a Circular Approach for the Facade Industry Over the years, the extraction and consumption of raw materials have increased radically, with a 60% increase since 1980. About one-fifth of the material extracted worldwide ends up as waste per year. The Netherlands government introduced the ‘Circular Netherlands in 2050’ plan in 2016 to tackle the problem. As a result, 95% of the secondary materials from the end-of-service-life demolition process of residential and non-residential buildings in the Netherlands are recycled. However, comparing different R-option on an R-hierarchy model shows a gradual decrease in value retention with recycling. The research focuses on shifting the facade industry from recycling to reuse to retain a higher material value. Research Question | How can secondary materials from construction and demolition processes be reused in the facade industry? Can a reuse process contribute to create a circular value and reduce negative environmental impacts for facades?
Research Outcome | Reuse of secondary materials for the same function is feasible through R-strategies of direct reuse, repair, refurbish, and remanufacture as long as the embodied value of the material does not change. For this, it is essential to match the demand and supply of secondary materials. The original material suppliers must take up the role of material resellers in the market. At the same time, manufacturers and architects need to shift their mindset from use of abundant to ‘scarce’ resources by altering the design process with the three stages of material sourcing, material processing, and material reuse. The proposed hybrid system using the primary and secondary material stream presented a 60% restorative material flow with the MCI score and a saving of 91% for embodied energy and 93% for Global Warming Potential with LCIA with reuse of steel mullions in the curtain wall facade.
MATERIAL SOURCING
MATERIAL PROCESSING
MATERIAL REUSE
Material Identification Material Extraction
Preliminary Processing Material Valuation
Design Methodology Facade Manufacturing
Environmental Impact Proposed Stages for Reuse of Secondary Materials Percentage share of secondary material by volume % share of secondary material by volume
Stream
- 2938
Net benefits Net benefits EE
GWP
-222
91%
93%
88%
89%
59%
49%
+14
Stream
25% -253
- 3671 +424
3 Recycling Scenario of Demolition Recycling of Demolition Stream Stream
Scenario 2
Hybrid mullion using primary and secondary stream Added/Avoided impact on GWP kgCO2 Added/Avoided impact on GWP (kgCO2)
+243
+25
Scenario 2
7% -118
-1831
+60
+745
Introduction
Name Graduation year Tutors 10
Added/Avoided impact on EE MJ impact on EE Added/Avoided (MJ)
9%
2 ReuseScenario of Demolition Reuse of Demolition Stream
Scenario 1
1 Reuse ofScenario Construction Reuse of Construction Stream
Scenario Scenario
Life Cycle Impact Assessment for the three design scenarios
Research Question
Material
Process
People
Design
Assessment
Bigger Picture
Neha Gupta 2021 Olga Ioannou & Bob Geldermans
Conclusions
Housing refurbishment using the Earth, Wind & Fire System The issue of climate change is getting bigger and affecting the world in serious ways. The world needs continuous improvement and innovation to progress towards achieving sustainability in the future. This research is a step to help mitigate these adverse effects through technological development in the building industry. Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF) system is an innovative air-conditioning system which bridges the gap between architecture and climate technology and works as an integrated part of the building to reduce the energy consumption and provide a good indoor environment. The research thus aims to answer the following question: “How can the Earth, Wind & Fire system be integrated in the Housing refurbishment in the Netherlands to achieve a nearly energy neutral design and improve the indoor comfort of the building?” A case study building is selected to carry out the said
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investigation. Several design strategies were incorporated for the case study building to design the EWF system with highest technical performance. The study also incorporated dynamic simulations to evaluate the energy performance of the building after installing the EWF system. The results of the simulations show that the annual energy consumption of the case study building reduces by 14% after installing the EWF system and keeping the other installations and the façade intact. However, when the existing façade is refurbished in addition to installing the EWF system, the annual energy consumption reduces by 57%. It is concluded that the integration of the Earth, Wind & Fire system has a great potential to reduce the energy consumption of the old apartment buildings in the Netherlands thereby also improving the indoor comfort. Moreover, it is also derived that the transformation of the old housing stock into a nearly energy neutral building requires a deep refurbishment strategy.
Air inlet and exhaust mechanism
Entrance view EWF scheme
Entrance view
Name Graduation year Tutors
Air supply and exhaust scheme
Facade refurbishment & duct integration in gallery
Yamini Patidar 2021 Regina Bokel, Marcel Bilow, Ben Bronsema 11
Naturally Tokyo: found in translation?
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choices can be made. It was clear that as Tokyo’s temperature is warmer than Amsterdam’s, focus needs to be given to cooling rather than heating. The challenge: space is limited in Tokyo hence the proposal of making SC as a plug & play unitized system.
Earth, Wind, and Fire (EWF) is a natural ventilation system developed by Dr Ben Bronsema for office buildings in the Western European climate. Powered by nature: ground temperature & gravity for cooling, wind for energy generation & ventilation, and sun for the heat and natural draft, this system claims not only to use little energy but also naturally purifies while humidify/dehumidify the air. No study has been done to see the performance of the system in a warmer climate, such as Tokyo. This thesis intends to answer that with the following research question: “Is the Dutch EWF, in place of the existing air-conditioning system, an efficient energy-retrofitting method to achieve energy-neutrality in an office building in Tokyo without compromising thermal comfort of users?”
Armed with a case study integrating EWF into a relatively new 10-story medium-sized office building in Tokyo, the study explored and compared 4 different systems: the existing energy-conscious VRF system, conventional VAV system, EWF with chilled ceiling, and EWF through chilled beams, as shown below. As a conclusion, EWF can contribute to energy reduction (40%) without compromising thermal comfort in comparison to the conventional VAV. Regarding VRF, further research needs to be done to properly simulate EWF with HR in the dynamic simulation software used. Moreover, EWF contributed to ventilation energy reduction in all cases evaluated, as well as improving thermal comfort.
The 2 dynamic duo of EWF: air supply system called Climate Cascade (CC) and air exhaust system called Solar Chimney (SC) are sized and calculated using 2 separate Excel models, from which the key parameters are identified and design
SUMMER Climate Cascade
1. VAV
2. VRF
3. EWF with chilled ceiling
4. EWF through chilled beams
Solar Chimney
Pre-cooled air to CC 27 °C
Air at the top of SC 25°C
12.5 °C
21 °C
Outside air 31°C efficiency 70% air medium
Space Cooling to 28 °C 28 °C
Heat Pump
Chiller
15 °C
Chilled ceiling
28 °C
15 °C
15 °C
28 °C
Cold Storage
Ground temperature 15 °C
11 °C
Heat Storage 19 °C
WINTER Climate Cascade
Pre-heated air to CC 18 °C
12.5 °C
!
The variety of systems explored
Solar Chimney Air at the top of SC 22°C
14 °C
Outside air 9 °C efficiency 70% air medium
Twin Coil
Air Heating to 16.5 °C
(when necessary)
35 °C
Heat Pump
Chiller 17 °C
11 °C
Cold Storage
Space Heating to 20 °C
20 °C 25 °C
Floor heating
19 °C
Ground temperature 15 °C
11 °C
19 °C
Summer & Winter scenarios
Schematic section of EWF in NK Building, Tokyo
Name Graduation year Tutors 12
Heat Storage
Corresponding temperature distribution
Solar chimney as unitized system: opaque block, transparent block, and frames
Puji Nata Djaja 2021 Regina Bokel & Alejandro Prieto
Earth, Wind and Fire System
Refurbishment of an Office Building in The Netherlands The built environment is the single largest energy consumer in the EU and one of the largest carbon dioxide emitters. The building sector collectively constitutes for 40% of the energy consumption in which 26% of the energy is consumed by the offices (European Commission, 2020).In the Netherlands, 45% of the office stock is older than 30 years which signifies that the façade and technical installations reach the end of their life (Vijverberg, 2002). Most technical installations have a life span of around 15-20 years and are often more fragile and expensive to maintain (Bronsema, 2013). To improve the overall performance of the buildings, we need to aim at reducing the energy consumption through Energy efficient refurbishments. Existing research has not covered the lack of utilization of renewable energy. The initial objective by the European Commission says that all new buildings in the EU must be nearly zero energy buildings i.e. buildings with very high energy performance and this should be achieved using a
Schematic working of the EWF system in the Provinciehuis Utrecht building.
Name Graduation year Tutors
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significant amount of renewable energy sources. Yet only 7.8% of the energy consumption in the Netherlands use energy generated from renewable sources. Therefore, this research focuses on improving the energy consumption of an office building in the Netherlands by implementing the Earth, Wind and Fire system which utilizes the environmental energy of earth mass, wind and sun to generate and supply energy throughout the building by eliminating the use of HVAC systems. The research adopted basic and dynamic simulation models to evaluate the energy performance of the building with EWF system and ATG method to evaluate the Thermal comfort. The research concluded that the EWF system is an efficient way to reduce the energy performance of the Provinciehuis Utrecht building and by refurbishing the façade and adding PV panels, the energy consumption of the building can reduce further. The research was validated by using the BENG regulations and a proposal was designed to make the Provinciehuis Paris Proof.
Refurbished facade with Living Wall System, BIPV and EWF elements
Shriya Balakrishnan 2021 Regina Bokel, Thaleia konstantinou & Ben Bronsema 13
Green roof tile
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Improving local biodiversity World’s population of human species is increasing every year. Also, Dutch population is growing. More and more people are moving into urban areas. All these people are part of ecosystems of a city. These ecosystems are under stress because of global problems such as diseases, pests, and climate change. To make future cities a liveable place, ecosystems need to be healthy and resilient. Biodiversity of an ecosystem is a serious indicator of health and resilience. Therefore, nature needs to be included into building environment and form a natural symbiosis with people living in it. To do so, the right location needs to be divined, a place nature can grow without intervention of people. This location is above our heads, roofs, in particular pitched roofs.
A green roof system implemented on pitched roofs can improve biodiversity by increasing habitat of living creatures and creating opportunities for population growth. Next to biodiversity, a green roof system reduces heat island effect, filters air, collects water, and extends lifespan of a roof.
This research is about the development of a green roof system, answering the following research question:
On a green roof tile or sideplate, a planter, breeding box, and insect hotel can be connected. Through this, plants can grow, birds can breed, and insects can live on slanted roofs of the Netherlands. All products have identical hanging system, making it possible to interchange them during assembling, but in a later stage too.
How can a green roof system improve biodiversity of pitched roof in Dutch cities?
Green roof tile and Green roof tile sideplate form a waterproof layer, connecting the whole system to conventional roof tiles and roof structure. These two products are designed to be integrated into roofs, independently from conventional roof tile type. One, ten or two hundred conventional roof tiles can be replaced by Green roof tiles, making it possible to anticipate on people’s budget.
Test setup, final prototype
Roof tile, planter, sideplate
Impression
Name Graduation year Tutors 14
Jorrit Parmentier 2021 Marcel Bilow, Nico Tillie
Solar Morphing Kinetic Envelope Kinetic responsive systems are gaining attention in architectural applications, to help reduce the building’s energy consumption and environmental impact, while improving the indoor comfort conditions. The thesis explores the potentials of Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) for the design of autoreactive facade systems without using additional energy. The exploration is conducted and assessed through the design of a facade concept for the city of Athens in Greece, aiming to improve both the indoor and outdoor environment by means of a kinetic autoreactive system, with a focus on the building’s direct and indirect impact on the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. The main research question is: “How can thermo-responsive Shape Memory Materials be integrated in an autoreactive facade system to reduce the building’s impact on the Urban Heat Island effect in the Mediterranean climate, with a focus on the case study of Athens, Greece?” The methodology follows a feedback-loop logic informed by environmental and energy performance evaluation studies conducted in the Grasshopper environment to optimize the geometry and movement of the proposed shading component. Throughout the facade design development, a comprehensive and systematic computational toolset is being developed, targeted on the abovementioned performance evaluation studies. The proposed facade system, as a case study application and outcome of this iterative process, features a dynamic seasonal response, triggered by the temperature changes and exhibits a dual function. During the coolingdominated periods, the aim is to reduce the cooling demands,
Close-up view (summer situation)
by increasing the reflective surfaces directing the incoming solar radiation to the atmosphere, while also increasing the shading and self-shading effect through undulated geometries. In the contrary, during the heating-dominated periods, the system adapts a double facade function with multiple-cavity zones for heat amplification, with a higher solar absorption enabled through larger sun exposure. The system’s mechanism composed of two SMA wires, operates in coordination with a pivot axle and rotating mechanism, in combination with elastic steel threads and membranes that can accommodate the dynamic deformations. The activation of the SMAs, due to the environmental temperature changes, causes their linear deformation and initiates with a single movement the linear and rotational movement of the components involved, in a cause-effect internal system, while also controlling the cavity aperture. The design aims to minimize the need for actuators and mechanical parts with no additional energy, while the study evaluates in parallel the energy and environmental performance in the urban microclimate and the potential for passive operation. Through the development and assessment of the facade concept, the objective is to explore the potentials and limitations for the application of autoreactive envelopes in the facade design and development. At the same time, the aim is to exploit the possibilities and optimization potentials offered through the developed iterative computational workflows and to propose a digital toolset to be used in a broader range of applications.
Close-up view (winter situation)
Exploded axonometric views of the working mechanism
Name Graduation year Tutors
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Sun ray trace analysis
Axonometric views (top: summer, bottom: winter)
Christina K oukelli 2021 Alejandro Prieto Hoces & Serdar Asut 15
Energy Reduction Façade Renovation System for different building typologies and climates. Current renovation practices cannot reach the energy reduction goal that the European Union has set by 2050. The traditional renovation methods are very time-consuming and cannot ensure the final energy improvement. The aim of this thesis focuses on the design of a prefabricated modular façade system that can be adaptable to different building typologies and climates. The main focus is to create a system that will reduce the current energy demands of existing buildings while at the same time giving the opportunity for a faster renovation approach. To achieve this goal different design tools have been used to develop a “Generic design” that can incorporate different energy reduction components according to the building needs. Additionally, a series of different attachment methods have been developed in order to render that the system capable to be installed in different building typologies.
Generic Facade module
Details
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The selection of the appropriate energy reduction components is achieved by using simulations according to the climate characteristics of the location and the building’s orientation. As far as the attachment of the system to the buildings is concerned, is achieved by analyzing the existing situation and the construction materials of the existing facade and select the appropriate attachment method. The final product consists of different principles and tools that are related to the materials, energy reduction, adaptability, and aesthetics that an existing building could integrate into an energy reduction renovation.
Elevation of a renovated facade
Position of the facade modules
Attachment methods
Selection of different module types and sun exposure analysis of a typical apartment.
Name Graduation year Tutors 16
Iason Vovos 2021 Thaleia Konstantinou & Eric van den Ham
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