Ashish Khemchandani

ASHISH KHEMCHANDANI Selected Architectural Works

www.ashishkhemchandani.com

647-793-3772, 647-450-1074 ashish@ashishkhemchandani.com www.ashishkhemchandani.com Toronto, ON

ASHISH KHEMCHANDANI Architectural Designer | Sustainability Specialist

Chautaqua Institute

Performance and Design project, University of Pennylvania (2015-16)

Corporate Headquarters

Professional Competition entry, Ahmedabad (2013-14)

University Campus and hall

HCP Design Planning and Management (2013-14)

The Nuthatch Hollow

Performance optimization for a registered Living Building project (2017)

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01 Chautaqua Institute, Arizona

Performance and Design project, University of Pennsylvania (2015-16)

Besides understanding the fundamentals of Environmental design, MEBD helped link the relation between strategizing environmental parameters and, rather importantly, to quantify the research into a real-time architectural experiment. The following pages showcase some examples of the exploration through the course of the experiment and an attempt to quantify those explorations.

The New Chautaqua institute was an experimental studio brief which focused on applied research of environmental design strategies using parametric design tools and simulation strategies to quantify sustainable design in various climatic zones of the United States, in this case, in the Hot and Arid climate of the Phoenix region in Arizona.

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Radiation & Daylighting: Sparse cloud cover and high radiation levels mean there’s good daylighting and solar energy potential, but all glazing need to be shaded at all times to prevent radiative heat gain.

Perforated shade over the courtyard traps the cooled micro-climate air but allows the stale heated air to escape via stack effect.

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Natural Ventilation: Natural ventilation can reduce air conditioning in warm but not very hot days, if combined with some passive cooling techniques and shade.

Opening in the mass in the windward side can harness oncoming wind into the courtyard.

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Evaporative cooling & Local Vegetation: Low humidity ratios allow for evaporative cooling strategies to help reduce the air temperature and induce comfort. Treated courtyard and stack effect to induce ventilation can aid both the indoors and outdoors.

Local plantations can help shade walls and improve outdoor micro-climate.

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Narrow Floor Plans: Long and narrow floor plan would facilitate cross ventilation, careful openings on the wind-ward side would harness treated microclimate air. Fan-driven ventilation can bridge the difference during the hottest months.

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B A

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Ground Floor Plan

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1 Lobby 2 Director and staff offices 3 Laboratory-1 4 Laboratory-2 5 Seminar room

F irst Floor Plan

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Exhibition + Retail Xeriscape Water fountain Staff work-spaces Archives Library

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Second Floor Plan

A Angled vertical fins B Cool air channels (open during summer) C Solar chimney D Mechanical sliding windows (Glazed faรงade)

Partial detail

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Summer cross section

Winter cross section 7

local vegetation solar chimney for cooling through stack effect during summer

solar PV panels generating upto 42.5kWh/m2 (13.4kBTU/ft2) (source: NREL)

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microclimate

solar chimney

dynamic rotating shades (fins)

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black paint

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PV panels E

shade over the courtyard

Sonoran desert xeriscape

Pinyo Pine

Mesquite water fountain for evaporative cooling

Wattles

ventilation channels to facilitate indoor air flow

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floor cooling vents

fans a

valve to prevent reverse draft

xeriscaping with local vegetation

skylight

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Outside air harnessed into the courtyard with an opening in the mass on the wind-ward side

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Floor-vents induce the cooled air for indoor ventilation and adaptive comfort

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Evaporative cooling features such as water-body and fountain cool down the air creating a cool microclimate

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Solar chimney heats the warm, risen air using black paint and glass and expels it to induce air-exchange

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Periodic inlets use fans and solar chimneys to harness the cooled microclimate air into the indoors to induce ventilation

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Valves in the chimney prevent reverse draft of the hot air, or of the outside air

skylight

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and sprinklers

upper floor inlets inlet to harness the cool micro-climate air

water body and fountain for evaporative cooling

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Thermal and visual comfort studies: exploring various shading strategies and parameters

(tools: EnergyPlus using Honeybee for Grasshopper platform, Radiance using Diva and Honebee for Grasshopper platform, Design Explorer) Base case

Ideally shaded case

A Black box case with no open-

ings/ glazing

B Case with maximum glazing ratio

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Box shades + blind parameters

2 Vertical shading parameters

(SW=60%, NE=90%)

Single story height

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i uild

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Adaptive Comfort:

pth

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38.38%

Adaptive Comfort:

13.76%

sDA:

100%

SW: WWR: 80% NE: WWR: 90%

Adaptive Comfort:

38.38%

sDA:

94.64

SW: WWR: 90% NE: WWR: 90%

Adaptive Comfort:

50.98%

Various box shade parameters

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Various vertical shading fin parameters

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sDA:

79.64

Spatial Daylight Autonomy (sDA) 100.00 90.00 80.00 70.00 60.00 50.00 40.00 30.00 20.00 10.00 00.00

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Aluminium vertical shades (fins)

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2. Triple-glazed units with 12mm gaps 3. Curtain wall 4. White paint+plaster

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5. Cement Stabilized adobe brick lay-

er + Cellulose insulation + Adobe brick layer

To determine the shading conditions most ideally suited for optimum annual adaptive comfort without the use of systems, several hundred simulations were run for a single bay within the building were run. Using Design Explorer, it was possible to find the alternative that works best in terms of thermal comfort and daylight. Check out the design explorer link here, and cycle through a sample simulation set.

Angled Vertical fins Of the box shades and angled fins, it was found after running hundreds of experiments that a continious array of fins 1.5m (≈5ft) in length and 1.33m (≈4’5”) apart gave the highest level of thermal comfort with the smallest compromise in daylight autonomy, while also controlling glare. This essentially gave a length to distance ratio of 1.1, if the fins were to be made smaller or closer together.

The next two pages simulate the results in a larger zone while finding more accurate parameters, and simulating other passive strategies like evaporative cooling and ventilation.

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Summary As it is well understood, sustainable design is more than just adding solar panels and shading mechanisms as surface add-ons. Environmental performance and sustainability in this project, as should be, was considered as one among the important preliminary criterion to match while drawing the first line on the design-board.

That is rave. As important as it is to understand and consider the fundamentals of climate-responsive design during the entire design process, it is also important to quantify, document and optimize the building performance based on the generated data to design a building upto its fullest performative potential.

Building energy modeling and simulations help there.

The comfort simulations with shading optimizations helped determine the right kind of shade that met the architectural criterion. The application in a larger zone within the building was an experiment to see how well the shading optimization experiments worked, while the CFD simulations helped simulate the airflow pattern in the courtyard and the building interior. The CFD and evaporative cooling helped realize how much the simple strategy could help improve occupant thermal comfort in the particular climate zone. The building successfully achieved over 50% comfort conditions annually without the use of any mechanical systems, which in theory makes it eligible for the LEED platinum rating. If the deficit is fulfilled using on-site energy generation, the building could be made compliant with the rigorous Passivhaus standard requirements.

By no means is the project optimal, it had the potential to be taken much further. The building fell short of achieving net-zero performance. It was observed that the application of dynamic shading device improved the daylight and comfort conditions substantially but due to time constraints, the numerous simulation runs required to determine the ideal dynamic shade parameters weren’t carried out. Nonetheless, this was still a successful experiment to see how this approach can help design highly performative buildings, and to realize the magnitude of the difference that the optimization can make on the ultimate performance of the building.

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Site EUI 71.7

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19 deficit borrowed from the grid

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ld on ing rgy ire Go t) ne 15 ed ts) qu ts) t uild pe D E e n a r b l E r 0 a in oin na il 2 ne ce Tem (LE pli um po ge ED p tin o 18 UI com atio ounc Offi enix/ a y E n l r E e g t P up L e g o er ing Int ode C ED era in Ph En ite (3 uild LE t (for Av C B s n me source: Building Performance Database

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02 Corporate Headquarters

Competition entry, HCP Design Planning and Management, Ahmedabad (2013-14) An Icon, a landmark, a symbol. That was the primary motif while conjuring up the brief for the Corporate Headquarter building for Zydus Pharmaceuticals in Gandhinagar, the state capital. But to go beyond it, the brief also emphasized as much on the building’s intended response to climate and sustainability as being a lasting icon.

A huge expanse of land in a developing neighborhood and flexible requirements afforded a great deal of freedom to try, experiment and innovate. Figuring out the optimum space requirements and conjuring an ideal brief before experimenting with the form and mass was a challenge, In order to meet which a significant study and research was carried out.

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The proposal The client brief required the tower to have an ‘iconic’ presence for visitors as well as passersby from the adjacent highway. What makes a building ‘iconic’?

The building includes a tower so that it has an iconic presence from afar while creating a natural heirarchy. At the same time it has a linear, horizontal courtyard type layout that can facilitate greater interaction, integrated landscape and a climate responsive design.

The client required the internal spaces to be ‘interactive’, such that they would facilitate a stronger collaboration between the employees. The company has a strong corporate structure with a definite heirarchy of positions but the heirarchy is not profound in terms of staff interactions. The internal spaces are thereby amalgamated and the typical heriarchical design of a coporate tower, as often it used to be, is done away with. The building is an amalgamation of work, collaboration and recreational spaces distributed evenly.

Visibility

Scale, Frontage, Context, Location

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Profile

Shape, Form, Silhouette

Details

Workmanship, Refinement, Precision, Material

+ The ‘Courtyard’:

Greater interaction, Shaded courtyards, Integrated landscape

The ‘Tower’:

Iconic form, Greater presence, Natural distribution of Heirarchies

The ‘Chimera’:

Organize the courtyard style horizontal building while retaining the iconic tower

Artisans

Heirarchies

≈19th Century

Networks

≈20th Century

≈21th Century

Source: Jarche.com

+ A Office/ Individual Work

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+ B Formal Collaboration

C Informal Collaboration

> Open Plan

& Greater Interaction

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Master plan 9.

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Site plan:

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1 Site entrances

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2 Conference center entrance 3 Corporate offices entrance 4 Courtyards

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5 Central green 6 Land for future expansion 7 Parking

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8 Ramp to basement car park 9 Utility blocks

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Amalgamation of internal spaces

A Structural core+services 18

B Informal Collaboration

C Formal Collaboration

D Office/ Individual Work

Selected floor plans The layout creates a natural hierarchy of spaces in terms of not only their function, but more importantly in terms of the hierarchy of the employee roles in the company. The top two floors constitute of the company chairperson’s office. The amalgamation of the different types of spaces allows for an interactive layout.

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20m

Longitudinal Section 19

Response to Climate

A climate responsive and efficient design that responds to today’s climate change and energy concerns was vital to the company’s business model.

1. Shading the Courtyards

While the basic climate responsive strategies were explored and covered, to take it a step further, the result of various alternatives of treatment to the building were explored to make an informed and qualitative design decision.

2. Promoting passive Ventilation

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3. Shading the Façade and Harvesting rain water

4. Window Design and Elevation Treatment

Partial Cross Section 20

Improving energy performance and controlling excess daylight

Floor plate type-1

Floor plate type-2

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Floor plate type-3

Total Energy Loads (kWh): 356.9 SDA: 87.76%

Total Energy Loads (kWh): 418.5 SDA: 100%

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Total Energy Loads (kWh): 335.31 SDA: 86.5%

Total Energy Loads (kWh): 363.18 SDA: 100%

The energy performance and sustainability of a building lies in the basic design strategies of its architecture and its details. A building in a hot climate such as that of Ahmedabad reserves good daylighting potential but needs to be shaded optimally to prevent radiative heat gain.

The sections constitute of three different typical floors in the tower and indicate the energy performance and potential to control excess daylight from the South of different glazing types (double/ triple) and shade types for these three floors.

Total Energy Loads (kWh): 314.17 SDA: 97.79% 21

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University hall and masterplan HCP Design Planning and Management (2013-14)

In another project in the hot, dry, and variable climate of Rajasthan, the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur was to be designed keeping the climatic factors in mind, as well as the local construction materials incorporating traditional design features. The requirements consisted of the master-plan along with typical building blocks for the various academic halls.

The external envelope and massing of the building was developed based on factors such as the climatic conditions, locally available materials and traditional architectural elements with an aim to create spaces of various scales to facilitate interactive learning on the campus.

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1 Entrance Avenue 2 ‘Fusion’ Court 3 Administration and Maintainance blocks 4 Director and staff offices 5 ‘Innovation’ Walk 6 Laboratory blocks 7 Classroom blocks 8 Library building 9 Landscaped Swales

‘Innovation’ avenue Courtyards/ Balconies/ Greenscapes

Circulation axis

‘Verandahs’ (patio)

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Service blocks Swales

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The design process and floor plans

A Maximum building mass

B Insert main entry-way

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C Self-shade facades by the protruding volumes

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Ground floor plan

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E Articulate volumes to create complementary spaces

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D Add Circulation and semi-open spaces

First floor plan

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Second floor plan

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Verandah (patio) Block entrance Classrooms Balconies Green courts Toilets Corridor Office Conference room Landscaped swale

PV panels

PDEC tower

Rooftop

Second floor

Ground and First floors

traditional ‘jali’ (screen)

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Response to contextual climate The climate of Jodhpur, Rajasthan is hot, dry and sunny. The average day-time temperature is 33°C and goes as high as 41°C in the summer. The high temperatures along with low RH permit for evaporative cooling strategies such as the passive down-draft evaporative cooling during the summers. Further, the radiation levels in Rajasthan offer a solar potential that exceeds 5.5-6.0 kWh/m2/day, which is one of the highest among the Indian cities. Therefore, Installing rooftop photovoltaics would help produce a good chunk of the required energy demand of the campus.

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Rooftop Photovoltaic panels

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Cooling towers integrating PDEC and ADC

A passive down-draft evaporative cooling (PDEC) tower is a component that is designed to capture the wind at the top of a tower and cool the outdoor air using water evaporation.

During the monsoon season, or when the wind velocity is low, An active system is integrated with the passive design. The operation of the motorized dampers and exhaust fans is used to induce ventilation so that a consistent comfortable environment can be provided.

The perforated stone ‘jali’ (screen) is a perforated latticework used as an external shading device used frequently in islamic, particularly mughal architecture. The perforated stone screen between the blocks takes inspiration from the traditional red sandstone architecure of Jodhpuri palaces and forts of the Mughal era.

Day-time condition

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Night-time condition

Passive Draught Evaporative Cooling (PDEC): An energy efficient and cost effective alternative to conventional air conditioning. It is achieved through evaporation of tiny droplets of water within an air stream.

Active Downdraught Cooling (ADC) During monsoon season A.D.C can be achieved by using chilled water cooling coils or panels. This approach avoids the need for either bulky fancoil units or AHU.

1 Random rubble masonry plinth using excavated material 2 Load bearing RCC Framed structure 3 Plastered walls using Autoclave Aerated Concrete blocks for in-fill walls 4 Louvres with local sandstone screen the corridors and minimise heat gain 5 Dry cladding using local sandstone with ventilated cavity between the wall and stone 6 Perforated stone jali (screen)

A B C D E F

Corridor Classrooms Lockers Balcony Green spaces Terraces

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Traditional jalis of Mughal Source: dsource.in architecture Top layer of roof uses China mosaic due to its high solar reflective index over a layer of EPS Rooftop PV panels Cooling towers integrating PDEC and ADC Air inlet in cooling towers Louvers in classrooms for air exchange 29

04 ‘Nuthatch Hollow’, a registered Living Building Lab

Daylighting, Thermal Comfort, Shade and Glare optimization, Ashley McGraw Architects (2017)

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The Environmental Sciences Laboratory at the Binghamton University is a registered ‘full living building’ designed to fulfill all the requirements of the rigorous Living Building Challenge introduced by the International Living Futures Institute. Most significantly, the project must be Net-positive in terms of Water and Energy and must not contain ‘Red-listed’ materials that can be potentially harmful to the Environment or inhabitant’s health.

Significant in-depth research was carried out to meet the projects material requirements and full scale energy-modelling, daylighting and thermal comfort studies were carried out to optimize the performance of the project and meet the LBC requirements.

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The three different parameters to optimize

Placement of the volumes Composting toilet chamber

Existing retaining wall

Glazing to wall ratio

Vegetated green roof

Composting toilet chamber

Shading devices 31

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Exploring the parameters to optimize. Click here to explore all options

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Whole building daylight study

sDA: Multi-purpose room: 81.89% Laboratory: 74.30%

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Checking point-in-time illuminance for the finalized option

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Balancing Daylight Autonomy with Annual Glare Factoring wall-thickness, optimizing shade to balance daylight while controlling glare: The wall thickness, reflectance of indoor materials and visible transmittance of the glazing was assigned to increase the accuracy of simulations and further optimization.

The shade designed to balance daylighting with annual glare, keeping the glare from South to a minimum.

01 - Adding wall thickness and assigning reflectance to the indoor surfaces

03 - Increasing shade and tapering the window sill and heads to increase daylight

04 - Distributing shade to further reduce glare

Alternative-01

Alternative-02 Alternative-04

Earlier iterations for optimizing various design options

Alternative-03

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02 - Adding shade to control glare, and inputting the visible transmittance of glazing for a more accurate outcome

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