Van Den Wymelenberg, K., & Inanici, M. (2014). A Critical Investigation of Common Lighting Design Metrics for Predicting Human Visual Comfort in Offices with Daylight. Leukos, 10(3), 145–164. https://doi.org/10.1080/15502724.2014.881720
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Abstract
Existing visual comfort metrics are reviewed and critiqued based upon their ability to explain the variability in human subjective responses in a daylit private office laboratory environment. Participants (n = 48) evaluated visual comfort and preference factors, totaling 1488 discreet appraisals, and luminance-based metrics were captured with high dynamic range images and illuminance-based metrics were recorded. Vertical illuminance outperformed all commonly referenced visual comfort metrics including horizontal illuminance, IES luminance ratios, daylight glare probability (DGP), and daylight glare index (DGI). The bounded borderline between comfort and discomfort is introduced, and preliminary visual comfort design criteria are proposed for several existing metrics. Fundamental limitations of glare indices are documented, and the implications of inconsistent application of luminance ratio calculation methods are quantified. Future research is detailed.
Keywords
daylight glare; daylight metrics; luminance ratio; vertical illuminance; visual comfort
Ko, W. H., Schiavon, S., Altomonte, S., Andersen, M., Batool, A., Browning, W., Burrell, G., Chamilothori, K., Chan, Y.-C., Chinazzo, G., Christoffersen, J., Clanton, N., Connock, C., Dogan, T., Faircloth, B., Fernandes, L., Heschong, L., Houser, K. W., Inanici, M., … Kent, M. (2022). Window View Quality: Why It Matters and What We Should Do. Leukos, 18(3), 259–267. https://doi.org/10.1080/15502724.2022.2055428
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College of Built Environments Dean Renée Cheng was featured on Madame Architect, with a conversation on “Sources of Energy, Research, and Making Equitable Spaces.” Read the full story here.
Judy Bowes was featured on The Daily with a story about her Bird Friendly UW project. An excerpt is below. “UW researchers estimate that buildings on campus are responsible for 10,000 to 15,000 bird deaths, with up to 1 billion deaths occurring from bird-building collisions each year. Judy Bowes’ research will provide insight into what UW’s contribution to that total is. Bowes, a graduate student in the College of Built Environments, has dedicated the past year toward analyzing how dangerous…
Owner of RDF Consulting Services and consultant for Turner Construction, Renzo di Furia, is working with Associate Dean for Research Carrie Sturts Dossick in supporting student-industry collaboration. “Applied Research Consortium brings together an interdisciplinary group of built environment firms with faculty experts and graduate student researchers at the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments (CBE) to address the most vexing challenges that firms face today.” A case study in applied research is highlighted in the article. 3D modeling was…
Shang, L., Dermisi, S., Choe, Y., Lee, H. W., & Min, Y. (2023). Assessing Office Building Marketability before and after the Implementation of Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure Policies—Lessons Learned from Major U.S. Cities. Sustainability (Basel, Switzerland), 15(11), 8883–. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118883
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Abstract
An increasing number of U.S. cities require commercial/office properties to publicly disclose their energy performance due to the adoption of energy benchmarking and disclosure policies. This level of transparency provides an additional in-depth assessment of a building’s performance beyond a sustainability certification (e.g., Energy Star, LEED) and may lead less energy-efficient buildings to invest in energy retrofits, therefore improving their marketability. However, the research is scarce on assessing the impact of such policies on office building marketability. This study tries to fill this gap by investigating the impact of energy benchmarking policies on the performance of office buildings in four major U.S. cities (New York; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; and Chicago). We use interrupted time series analysis (ITSA), while accounting for sustainability certification, public policy adoption, and property real estate performance. The results revealed that in some cities, energy-efficient buildings generally perform better than less energy-efficient buildings after the policy implementation, especially if they are Class A. The real estate performances of energy-efficient buildings also exhibited continuously increasing trends after the policy implementation. However, due to potentially confounding factors, further analysis is required to conclude the policy impacts on energy-efficient buildings are more positive than those on less energy-efficient buildings.
Keywords
building energy benchmarking and disclosure policies; building energy efficiency; office buildings; time series modeling
A new international research partnership aims to spark dialogue and learning through storytelling about sustainable and equitable urban development. Collaborators from five global cities have partnered to shift common practices of how stories of successful urban change are told and who tells them. The study involves three case study cities that are exemplars of sustainable and equitable development. Local collaborators include academics and their community-based partners in Belfast (Queen’s University), Northern Ireland, Belo Horizonte (Federal University of Minas Gerais Brazil…
[Re]Visioning the Ave: Students Devise Real-World Strategies for a Thriving, Accessible Neighborhood Hub was published on the College of Built Environments website, discussing the future of “The Ave.” The U-District Partnership (UDP)—a nonprofit organization worked with Teaching Affiliate David Blum and a diverse team of 16 urban planning graduate students through the process of assessing potential improvement strategies for the Ave in Winter 2022. Read more here.
CBE researchers worked with the Charles Pankow Foundation to develop a new Building Owner Assessment Tool (BOAT). Team members included CBE Dean Renée Cheng, FAIA; Associate Dean for Research Carrie Sturts Dossick, Ph.D, P.E.; and Laura Osburn, Ph.D. Other team members included Lingzi Wu, Ph.D. Daniel Dimitrov, and Xianxiang Sean Zhao. The tool was developed in partnership with the American Institute of Architects and the Integrated Project Delivery Alliance. The Building Owner Assessment Tool (BOAT): Helping You Understand Your Culture and Its…
Kim, Minju & Lee, Dongmin. (2023). Automated two-dimensional geometric model reconstruction from point cloud data for construction quality inspection and maintenance. Automation in Construction, 154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2023.105024.
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Abstract
Despite the availability of 3D digital models, 2D floor plans remain extensively used for quality inspection and maintenance as they offer firsthand information. While laser scanners enable efficient capture and reconstruction of real-world scenes, challenges arise in accurately extracting building geometry from laser scanning data due to the loss of geometric features. This paper describes a method for accurately reconstructing 2D geometric drawings of built facilities using laser scanning data. These techniques involve transforming the dimension of 3D data into 2D and displaying the registered data as pixels to extract solid lines that represent wall structures. By employing dimensionality transformation and pixelation techniques, the method supports reliable quality inspection and maintenance processes, overcoming the challenges of extracting precise geometry from laser scanning data. This paper contributes to the automated extraction of geometric features from point clouds and inspires the future development of fully automated 2D CAD and 3D BIM in alignment with Scan-to-BIM.