ENERGY BENEFITS OF PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION OF HISTORICAL BUILDINGSLauren Ovca, Architecture

Professor Shannon McDonald

The architectural world, similarly to the rest of the world, is working towards sustainability and energy efficiency. This is now a permanent part of architectural thinking. Currently, new buildings are being designed with these sustainable strategies in mind, but what about buildings that have already been constructed? A historical building is typically one that is over 50 years old. Mae Smith, one of the three Brush Towers of Southern Illinois University, can be considered a historical building. Constructed in 1969, it has served as home to thousands of students for the university over its lifetime. Throughout this process, I also focused on the hub lounge, where students can congregate on their floor, and the best placement for it and the building as a whole. Combining the two aspects, sustainability and historical buildings, is imperative for keeping them in today’s society. Rather than spending the time, energy, and materials to demolish a historical building, we should look into options of restoring and preserving them in a sustainable manner. The following research starts with the basic transformation that could have made it more sustainable from the beginning: correct building orientation. Architects are responsible for proper building orientation, and it is the first and most powerful step for energy savings.

Introduction

Methods It is clear that Mae Smith cannot be picked up and rotated. However, it is important to understand a basic principle such as building orientation when researching energy savings. After understanding this, further options can be explored to enhance the building’s energy benefits. I began by looking at the meaning of energy efficiency and the history of Mae Smith. With a general understanding of both topics, Professor McDonald and I decided to examine the building orientation. While doing this, I also completed a psychrometric chart that shows the climate point of Carbondale, IL for further research.

Before I could rotate the building, I had to calculate the current percentages of window area that was covered by sunlight in winter and summer. To do this, I drew the buildings in Google SketchUp and casted shadows for typical sunny days on June 21st and December 21st, the summer and winter solstices. My goal was to increase the window area receiving sunlight in the winter, leading to a heat gain, and decrease the window area receiving sunlight in the summer. Throughout my exploration, I utilized information from previous research as well as developed my own projections and models. Each degree that the building was altered changed the percentages more than I had previously expected. After testing about seven different rotations I found the best solution for the building and hub lounge.To display my findings, I finalized diagrams of the existing position of Mae Smith and the energy savings rotation of Mae Smith.

Conclusions & Future Research

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Comparison of Window Area Percentages Exposed to Daylight on December 21st*

  

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The total of percentages of window area covered by the sun for the original placement of Mae Smith equals 920. The total for the Energy Savings Model equals 1,035. This produces an increase of 11 percent of window area exposed to daylight in the winter.

The total of percentages of window area covered by the sun for the original placement of Mae Smith equals 575. The total for the Energy Savings Model equals 590. This produces an increase of three percent of window area exposed to daylight in the summer.

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Comparison of Window Area Percentages Exposed to Daylight for Hub Lounge

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A survey taken from residents of Mae Smith revealed that the Hub Lounge was “warmer” rather than “comfortable” most of the time. The new rotation shifts the percentages of window area exposed to daylight to the afternoon and evening hours where the sun is less intense. The next step is to examine heat gain/loss and design an element that allows the sunlight to be controlled even more. This will minimize the sun exposure in the summer and provide a greater flexibility for sun exposure throughout the entire year.

ReferencesBrown, G. Z., & Dekay, M. (2001). Sun, Wind, & Light: Architectural design strategies. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Carroon, J. (2010). Sustainable Preservation: Greening existing buildings. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Clark, R. H., & Pause, M. (1996). Precedents in Architecture, Second Edition. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold.Loebl, Schlossman, Bennet, & Dart. Tower Buildings. 1965. Chicago, IL. Ink on Paper, 30x46 in. (as provided by SIU Carbondale Building and Maintenance.) Olgay, V. (1963). Design with Climate: Bioclimatic approach to architectural regionalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Left: Initial sketch of Mae Smith’s current position on a directional axis. Top Right: Mae Smith highlighted next to Schneider. Bottom Right: Hub Lounge highlighted on the floor plan for a typical residential floor.

The current placement of Mae Smith receives the majority of its sunlight on only two façades. The hub lounge receives the most sunlight in the early morning hours until mid-day. The entrance façade receives sunlight in the late afternoon. The third façade to the North hardly receives any sunlight throughout the day.

Top Left: The Mae Smith Hub Lounge in its current position. Bottom Left: The Mae Smith Hub Lounge in its energy savings rotation. Right: A side-by-side comparison of the current position of Mae Smith next to the energy savings rotation of Mae Smith. In addition to finding a better orientation for energy efficiency, as shown under the conclusions section, the hub lounge is overlooking campus rather than a parking lot. The entrance also has better access to the back circle drive for closer loading and unloading.

This project was sponsored in part by the Research Rookies Program.

Results