Today the AIA announced five grant recipients of its Upjohn Research Initiative. In its 10th year, the 18-month-long grant program distributes $100,000 across the selected proposals, which "advance professional knowledge and practice," and qualifies each project for national publication and distribution on the AIA website.
This year's winners include a digital tool for designing with and measuring circadian daylight; masonry made from waste polymers; healthcare technology strategies for aging-in-place structures; shape memory polymers for adaptable building envelope applications; and insulated walls made of recycled materials. An overview of each project follows below.
Project: A Circadian Daylight Metric and Design Assist Tool for Improved Occupant Health and Well-Being
Principal Investigator: Kyle Konis, AIA, assistant professor of architecture, University of Southern California
AIA Description: All zones within a building that do not regularly achieve the lighting conditions necessary for effective circadian stimulus can be labeled as biologically dark and considered as zones where regular occupancy may be problematic for health and well-being. The objective of this research is to develop a daylighting Metric and Design Assist Tool capable of assessing the circadian potential of architectural space. Procedures using annual, climate-based daylight analysis of eye-level light exposures will be developed to map the circadian effectiveness of a given space. The Design Assist Tool can be used to assess and differentiate the performance of various daylighting strategies during the design phases of a project or to quantify the circadian effectiveness of existing spaces.
Project: Post Natural Material Assemblies
Principal Investigators: Meredith Miller, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Michigan and Thomas Moran, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Michigan
AIA Description: Plastiglomerates—formed from the waste polymers of post-consumer plastic fusing with sand, rock, and other inorganic materials—suggest a new approach to sustainable building materials. This proposal builds on collaborative work of the research team to investigate the architectural potential of plastiglomerates with the intent to build a full-scale architectural assembly made from thermocast units. By combining the inherent properties of synthetic plastics and stone, these post natural “masonry” units can be inexpensive, durable, insulating, and locally sourced. The proposed project aims to enhance the plastic-waste-to-building-element workflow and its adaptability to on-site production.
Project: Smart Cities: Population Health and the Evolution of Housin
Principal Investigator: Joe Colistra, AIA, associate professor of architecture at the University of Kansas
AIA Project Description: This project will develop a multifamily housing prototype that demonstrates best practices in aging-in-place strategies and tele-health technology. It will investigate prefabricated construction techniques that can be used to bring population health strategies to the affordable housing market. The research team will work with construction industry partners as well as health professionals to test various sensor-enabled assemblies. Some of the more advanced technologies will include motion sensors/fall detection, gait analysis, automated LED smart-spectrum lighting, smart mirrors, smart toilets, sleep sensors, and automated medicine dispensers.
Project: Smart Tiles: Novel Application of Shape Memory Polymers for Adaptive Building Envelopes
Principal Investigator: Dale Clifford, assistant professor at California State Polytechnic University
Collaborators: Kelle Brooks, California State Polytechnic University; John Brigham, Durham University; Richard Beblo University of Dayton Research Institute
AIA Project Description: This project addresses the challenges of designing adaptive façade systems with "dynamic" or "smart" materials. The team will design latitude-specific self-shading building tiles that apply the attributes of a class of polymers with shape memory characteristics. The Smart Tiles are intended to wrinkle and reposition themselves in response to incoming solar radiation to deliver self-shading and energy harvesting performance. Stepping into the emergent field of building self-regulation with programmable matter, this project joins the shift towards a built environment that passively adapts to subtle environmental fluctuations of temperature, light, humidity, and pressure via material properties. Equally important to the team is that the dynamic aspects of the SMART Tiles appeal to the imagination and viscerally (re)connect a building occupant to the environment.
Project: TrashWalls
Principal Investigators: Taiji Miyasaka, associate professor of architecture at Washington State University; Robert Richards, professor at the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University; Vikram Yadama, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Washington State University
Collaborators: Rex Hohlbein, executive director of nonprofit Facing Homelessness and founder of Rex Hohlbein Architects; David Drake, Washington State University
AIA Project Description: TrashWalls, fabricated using materials harvested from the local solid waste stream, are designed to reduce heat loss from rented apartments, improve the comfort of those spaces during hot or cold weather, and save renters money on their utility bills, while reducing pollution. The purpose of this project is to design, construct, and examine prototypes of interior insulating walls that are attractive, have an R-value of R-10 (US) or greater, cost less than ten cents per square foot, are built from recycled waste materials, are easily manufactured, fire safe, and can accommodate windows. The research team, a collaboration between architecture and engineering, seeks applications of TrashWalls to backyard transitional homes for people who are homeless in Seattle. Testing will occur in a lab setting and at an urban site.
The jury included chair Michael D. Lingerfelt, FAIA, of Orlando, Fl.–based Lingerfelt International; Judith DiMaio, FAIA, dean emeritus of New York Institute of Technology's School of Architecture and Design; Timothy Hawk, FAIA, of Columbus, Ohio–based WSA Studio; Frederick Marks, AIA, of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif.; Eric Pempus, AIA, of Oswald Companies in Cleveland, Ohio; Roger Schluntz, FAIA, of the University of New Mexico; John Sorrenti, FAIA, of JRS Architect in New York and New Jersey
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