Regionalism and the design of low-rise building envelope systems

This investigation proposes the use of a three-pronged approach to evaluating building envelopes for low-rise affordable housing in urban contexts: construction cost estimating, building performance modeling, and cradle to grave life cycle assessment. Two climate regions were investigated: hot-humid and hot-dry, in two large urban cities: Phoenix and Miami. The envelope systems compared were conventional for the practice area versus best practice and high r-value systems. The results demonstrate that the application of the three-pronged method yields data architects can use to improve energy performance, reduce costs and limit negative environmental impacts.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Tapia, Jason W. (Jason Wilfredo)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John Fernandez and John Ochsendorf.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/59203

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/59203