Complex structures jointed like origami. Office walls and ceilings that swoop and bend over enormous open spaces. Experimental pavilions made with robotic fabrication techniques. This is a world of architecture made possible by mass-timber framing. And, it’s a world that’s becoming more environmentally and acoustically sound through the work of UW College of Built Environments, Department of Architecture Assistant Professor Tomás Méndez Echenagucia, UW Master of Science in Architecture/Design Technology student Nathan Brown, and other collaborators. Mass timber is a…
Department: Architecture
Practical Mathematics in the Drawings of Baldassarre Peruzzi and Antonio Da Sangallo the Younger
Huppert, Ann. “Practical Mathematics in the Drawings of Baldassarre Peruzzi and Antonio Da Sangallo the Younger.” Geometrical Objects, edited by Anthony Gerbino, Springer, 2014, pp. 79–106.
Abstract
Combining technical practice with aesthetic intent, Renaissance architecture was by nature a mathematical art. Although the limitations of surviving documents hinder efforts to discern what Italian Renaissance architects knew of mathematics, where they learned it, and how they applied this knowledge, extant drawings from the period offer one means of addressing these questions. Inscribed numerals and calculations, in particular, abound in the drawings by two leading architects of early sixteenth-century Italy, Baldassarre Peruzzi and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, suggesting that both attained a high degree of numeracy. Comparing these contemporaries is also revealing since, while each incorporated mathematics as a central element in their architectural practice, their approaches diverge in ways that point to and illuminate significant differences in their background and design methods.
Keywords
Mathematical ability; fifteenth century; plumb line; scale line; wooden model
Material Matters: Training the Renaissance Architect
Huppert, Ann. “Material Matters: Training the Renaissance Architect.” Artistic Practices and Cultural Transfer in Early Modern Italy: Essays in Honour of Deborah Howard, edited by Avcıoğlu Nebahat and Allison Sherman, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 89–106.
College of Built Environments’ Research Restart Fund Awards Four Grants in Second Cycle
The College of Built Environments launched a funding opportunity for those whose research has been affected by the ongoing pandemic. The Research Restart Fund, with awards up to $5,000, has awarded 4 grants in the second of its two cycles. A grant was awarded to Manish Chalana, faculty member with Urban Design and Planning to help support his efforts to carry out archival research and fieldwork in India for his new book exploring the history and memory of non-dominant groups…
On the Tradeoffs between Embodied and Operational Carbon in Building Envelope Design: The Impact of Local Climates and Energy Grids
Méndez Echenagucia, T., Moroseos, T., & Meek, C. (2023). On the Tradeoffs between Embodied and Operational Carbon in Building Envelope Design: The Impact of Local Climates and Energy Grids. Energy and Buildings, 238.
Abstract
Embodied and operational carbon tradeoffs in building envelopes are studied. • Envelope variables include wall assemblies, WWRs, glazing and shading. • Energy decarbonization models are used to determine the 30-year operational carbon. • Results show the importance of a total carbon approach to envelope design. • Over or under insulation can result in waste of 10–150 kgCO 2 e/m2. The building envelope has a substantial influence on a building's life cycle operational and embodied carbon emissions. Window-to-wall ratios, wall assemblies, shading and glazing types, have been shown to have a significant impact on total emissions. This paper provides building designers, owners, and policy makers with actionable guidance and a prioritization framework for establishing co-optimized lifecycle carbon performance of facade assembly components in a broad spectrum of climate contexts and energy carbon intensities. A large parametric study of building envelopes is conducted using building performance simulation and cradle-to-gate embodied carbon calculations in 6 US cities. The authors derive the total carbon emissions optimization for commercial office and residential space types using standard code-reference models and open-source lifecycle data. Comparisons between optimal total carbon solutions and (i) optimal operational carbon and (ii) minimum required assemblies, show the impact of under and over investing in envelope-related efficiency measures for each climate. Results show how the relationship between embodied and operational carbon is highly localized, that optimal design variables can vary significantly. In low carbon intensity energy grids, over investment in envelope embodied carbon can exceed as 10 kgCO 2 e/m2, while under investment in high carbon intensity grids can be higher than 150 kgCO 2 e/m2.
Keywords
Building performance simulation; Embodied carbon; Operational carbon; Parametric modeling
H. H. Richardson: The Design of the William Watts Sherman House
Ochsner, J. K. (1992). H. H. Richardson: The Design of the William Watts Sherman House. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 51(2), 121-145.
Abstract
Henry Hobson Richardson's design for the William Watts Sherman house, in Newport, Rhode Island, has long been considered an anomaly among his projects. While its living hall plan has always been credited to Richardson, the exterior has often been thought to have been the work of Richardson's assistant, Stanford White, drawing on the published work of Richard Norman Shaw. Study of surviving sketches, drawings, and other records, along with an examination of the house itself, shows that this explanation of the Sherman house is inadequate. Not only did Richardson control both plan and massing, but he must also be credited with the design of critical front gable, which did not derive from Shaw's work. Analysis of Richardson's sketches also offers clues to Richardson's typical architectural design method and compositional approach, as well as to his specific blending of English, Continental, and especially American colonial vernacular influences in the Sherman design. These influences also provide a basis for understanding why the house became such an important source for the development of multiple themes in American domestic architecture in succeeding decades, especially the Shingle Style.
Adler and Sullivan’s Seattle Opera House Project
Ochsner, J. K. (1989). Adler and Sullivan’s Seattle Opera House Project. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 48(3), 223-231.
Abstract
Adler and Sullivan's Seattle Opera House project is known from a perspective drawing and three plans that were first published in Inland Architect in 1891. It has been known that the demise of the project was due to financial difficulties, but otherwise the circumstances surrounding the commission have remained obscure. This article presents new information regarding the client, the commission, and the architects. Seattle newspaper reports, surviving correspondence, and project records provide the basis for a more detailed description of the Opera House project history. In addition, correspondence from Charles H. Bebb, who was sent to Seattle for several months in 1890 as superintending architect for Adler and Sullivan, provides insight into the condition of their office before his permanent move to the city in 1893.
Architecture for the Boston & Albany Railroad: 1881-1894
Ochsner, J. K. (1988). Architecture for the Boston & Albany Railroad: 1881-1894. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 47(2), 109-131 .
Abstract
Between 1881 and 1894 the Boston & Albany Railroad undertook a major program of capital investment and improvements to the physical facilities of the line, including the construction of over 30 new passenger stations. H. H. Richardson's close friends, James A. Rumrill and Charles S. Sargent, as the two members of the B&A Board most interested in construction, were given responsibility for this program. They directed the commissions to Richardson and after his death to his successors, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. Richardson's nine B&A station designs were generally variations on a simple theme-small rectangular stone blocks with overhanging roofs providing sheltered waiting space at trackside. The continuation of this approach by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge in 23 additional station designs resulted in a remarkable consistency of character and quality throughout the B&A system. This consistency was also fostered by the continuing participation of Norcross Brothers of Worcester (Richardson's "Master Builder") as contractor, and by the participation of F. L. Olmsted, whose design of landscaped settings for many of the stations contributed to the establishment of the B&A program of "railroad gardening." While the stations were small commissions, the totality of the B&A program represents an impressive collaboration of designer, contractor, and client which has seldom been equalled.
The East Elevation of the Sherman House, Newport, Rhode Island
Ochsner, J. K. (1993). The East Elevation of the Sherman House, Newport, Rhode Island. Journal of Architectural Education, 52(1), 88-90.
Abstract
A previously unknown photograph of the east side (rear elevation) of Henry Hobson Richardson's Sherman House, in Newport, Rhode Island, provides additional evidence for the influence of Richard Norman Shaw on the initial design of the house. The photograph reinforces the argument that the distinctive west-facing front gable was grafted onto the body of a largely Shaw-inspired house. This further demonstrates that the front gable must have resulted from Richardson's late intervention in the design process.
Understanding the Holocaust through the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
Ochsner, J. K. (1995). Understanding the Holocaust through the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Journal of Architectural Education, 48(4), 240-249.