Sorrel Tower

SORREL TOWER EDINBURGH

CRITICAL BUILDING DESIGNING SUSTAINABLE BUILDING SYSTEMS

Madison Sacramone Grace Cowan Msc Advanced Sustainable Design Sustainable Design Methodologies 2021

SORREL TOWER, EDINBURGH

DESIGN PROCESS This project will synthesize the long-term needs for an office building by providing solutions for environmental comfort. By designing a productive building skin, strategic services and incorporating nature in architecture, the building will encourage occupant wellbeing and reduce the environmental impact.

Key design areas focus on the function of the building’s skin, services and the relationship to nature.

Key strategies will outline rain and wind harvesting, double facade, displacement ventilation, stack effect, bio-mimicry and solar gain.

LOCATION ANALYSIS DESIGN WIND HARVESTING RAIN HARVESTING STRATEGY

LOCATION ANALYSIS The project is located in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. The area is currently undeveloped and is a very desirable location on the canal.

The site has potential to integrate and foster a positive environment for the people who occupy it and the nature that surrounds it.

The location analysis looks at environmental influences from a micro to macro scale.

LOCATION ANALYSIS Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, UK Micro and Macro Climate

Climate Overview - Edinburgh is in the Köppen Climate Classification CFB - Marine West Coast Climate Temperate climate with significant precipitation . The average temperature for the year in Edinburgh is 9.1°C. The warmest month is July, average temperature of 19°C. The longest day of the year is July at nearly an 18 hr day, the shortest day is in December, 7 hrs.

The site plan outlines the proposed landscape and potential for future developmet. The site is located near the canal, our design utilizes this as a desierable view and for oncoming winds.

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LOCATION ANALYSIS Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, UK Micro and Macro Climate

The site elevation demonstrates the proposed plantings and building in relationship to environment. This begins to outline our strategies for rain water harvesting, wind harvesting and orientation for solar gain/daylighting.

Social space Access to nature

Wind Harvesting

Rain Harvesting

Ground Source Heat Pump Catchment Tank

Future Build

LOCATION ANALYSIS Landscape scheme.

A productive landscape can diffuse wind gusts on the lower part of the building. Indigenous plantings will also promote a biophilic design pr providing access to nature and local biodiversity.

Large scale plantings

Small scale plantings

Large scale plantings will provide a barrier from harsh winds and access to serene landscape.

Small scale plantings may be used to increase biodiversity and habitat for local fauna within the urban setting.

The roof will have plantings to increase biodiversity and habitat.

Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) avg. 30m Silver birch (Betula pendula) avg. 25m Woolly Willow

Fungus Wood sorrel Wildflowers Grass

LOCATION ANALYSIS Rain Water Macro climate - rain variables around the site

Annual Precipitation 80 mm

60 mm

750 mm

40 mm

20 mm

0 mm

Rainfall in a typical year Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Estimated Annual Water Yield from Rain Catchment system 72,000 Liters

Evaluating the annual precipitation is essential to our strategy proposed for a rain harvesting facade. Rainfall is rather low in Edinburgh compared to the rest of the UK, water services to the building can be balanced with rain water, gray water re-use and imports from Scottish Waters as well.

LOCATION ANALYSIS Wind Macro climate - wind variables around the site

Wind Rose

Average Wind Speed (kph)

Wind Direction

Most productive wind comes from South & South-west

Wind studies are essential to the design of the wind harvesting facade in order to address the best orientation and productivity of wind. The wind rose demonstrates how many hours per year the wind blows from the indicated direction. It is noted that the most productive wind is from the South west and South.

LOCATION ANALYSIS Solar Gain and Daylighting Macro climate - solar variables around the site Sun Path Summer Equinox Azimuth - 138 ° Altitude - 52 °

Daylight Hours Winter Equinox

The longest daylight hours are from June to July and the shortest from December to January.

Azimuth - 157 ° Altitude - 8 °

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

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N

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Solar gain and daylighting is a key variable to designing a successful office environment. The daylight angle and hours fluctuate a lot between summer and winter in Edinburgh.

Summer has a fairly mid level and winter has a very low angle, causing shorter days. This can change in the future so, our facade will be designed to adapt.

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S

DESIGN & PLAN The design phase demonstrates the building usage. It is important to outline the desired office environment in order to deliver the best outcome to serve the needs of the occupants.

The office is designed to be a co-working space for individuals and small to medium businesses.

This office model is future-forward because it is flexible and has low overhead cost for businesses.

The model is also adaptable for future use of the structure.

DESIGN Designing a future-forward office environment.

The floor plan is designed to be adaptable overtime, this includes flexible wall partitions and large spaces that can adapt to various uses.

PRESENTATION

PRESENTATION

CIRCULATION

CAFE

The office is designed as a co-working style workplace which will allow entrepreneurs, companies and traveling individuals to rent workspaces, conference and meeting spaces with the benefits of a cafe, gym and breakout lounge areas to foster a casual yet productive office environment.

Level 0

MEETING

CIRCULATION

GYM

MEETING MEETING

SOCIAL SPACE

SOCIAL SPACE

Level 1

MEETING

Levels 2-6 are designed with open meeting and lounge space with open work areas. This would be in the form of bookable desks.

SOCIAL SPACE

MEETING

MEETING

The ground floor is zoned as an entry level with reception, communal lounge spaces, a cafe and bookable meeting/presentation rooms.

The second floor has more bookable meeting and conference spaces. The large conference space has movable partitions to serve different activity purposes. There are small private rooms for phone calls off of lounge space. The gym is also located here to promote occupant wellbeing.

SOCIAL SPACE

MEETING

SOCIAL SPACE

N SOCIAL SPACE

The layout has a central circulation flow throughout to create an accessible design and openness for air flow.

SOCIAL SPACE

CIRCULATION

SOCIAL SPACE

MEETING

Level 2 - 6

MEETING

DESIGN Interior view.

The design is modeled after a co-working environment which is future-forward. Employees, small businesses and entrepreneurs may rent a variety of work spaces on a short term or long term membership basis. Occupant comfort and sustainability are key design drivers that are executed through materiality. The ceiling is treated with Pet Felt acoustic tiles by Kirei, made from recycled plastic bottles. The floor is treated with up-cycled terrazzo and carpet tile sustainably manufactured by Interface. The office aims to foster an open and positive work environment.

Break-out spaces allow more natural light to fill the space and they provide multifunctional meeting areas.

DESIGN Exterior view.

WIND HARVESTING FACADE The south and west facades are treated with an innovative wind harvesting system modeled after local flora. This system both shades the structure from solar gain and utilizes micro turbines to harvest wind for energy.

WIND HARVESTING FACADE Exploration of form.

Designing a wind harvesting facade requires special consideration for methods to control wind. In this case we have looked at various designs for a barrier to provide shelter from the wind hitting the ground below, preventing it from creating gusts. Strategic plantings will also diffuse wind gusts.

The barrier will also push wind back up the facade to make a more productive current to harvest the wind as a renewable energy source.

Option D is predicted to be the best suited to re-direct the wind and provide a covered walkway.

A

B

C

D

Landscape to diffuse gusts.

The south facade will be angled to optimize south-western winds to make a more productive wind harvesting facade.

The wind gusts will swiftly move along the facade and employ the micro turbines to rotate.

A flat facade would not be as productive because southern winds are not as strong.

WIND HARVESTING FACADE Bio-mimicry in design.

Bio-mimicry emulates the natural world in models, systems and elements for the purpose of solving complex design problems.

This design method intends to model a facade which will adapt to different environmental conditions including daylighting and temperature.

An aluminum four-way grid system with opening and closing turbines will control daylight and generate energy from prevailing wind.

Nyctinastic; adj. (of the periodic movement of flowers or leaves) caused by nightly changes in light intensity or temperature.

By exploring native plants, we found that Wood Sorrel is common in Scotland. The clover-like leaves rise and fall to adapt to light conditions, when it blooms the flowers open and close to adapt to day & night.

Turbines modeled after wood sorrel blossoms will fold shut when more daylight is needed and open for shading the building.

WIND HARVESTING FACADE Micro-turbines The facade will adapt to daylight conditions to shade based on various environmental conditions which may change as the building ages and climate change continues. It can be programed to shade specific “hot spots” of the building and transition throughout the day and year.

OPEN POSITION

HALF OPEN POSITION

CLOSED POSITION

WIND HARVESTING FACADE Micro-turbines The micro-turbine requires extensive study. In order to rotate and contract to open and close there will be a variety of mechanisms.

A gear box will turn to generate electricity that will be stored in an on-site battery. The rotor blades will contract by tightening the activation mechanism.

When the turbine is fully open solar gain will be blocked and provide shade to the interior office environment. With the rate of climate change it is possible that solar gain may become an increasing issue to combat in the future, this model is looking forward to adapt with climate change.

GEAR BOX ANEMOMETER

CONTROL ELECTRONICS GENERATOR

HIGH SPEED SHAFT

Solar Gain

LOW SPEED SHAFT ROTOR BREAK ACTIVATION MECHANISM

Open

Closed

WIND HARVESTING FACADE Axonometric SERVICE PLATFORM INTERIOR BALCONIES

WIND TURBINES

SANDSTONE BLOCK

HOT WATER PIPE ENCLOSED TO PREHEAT AIR

GLAZING WITH ALUMINUM MULLIONS SUPPORTS PARAMETRIC ALUMINUM FRAME

QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENTS Calculating the amount of energy produced from the wind harvesting facade.

The energy output of one turbine across the year, then averaged for an estimated annual energy output of the whole wind facade.

January

April

July

October

Radius (r): 3.28m

Radius (r): 3.28m

Radius (r): 3.28m

Radius (r): 3.28m

Wind Speed (v): 5 mps

Wind Speed (v): 7 mps

Wind Speed (v): 4 mps

Wind Speed (v): 2 mps

Air density (p) 1.22 kg/m³

Air density (p): 1.25 kg/m³:

Air density (p): 1.25 kg/m³

Air density (p): 1.23 kg/m³

Efficiency Factor n: 20%

Efficiency Factor (n): 20%

Efficiency Factor (n): 20%

Efficiency Factor n: 20%

= 0.515 kilowatts/turbine

= 1.45 kilowatts/turbine

= 0.27 kilowatts/turbine

= 0.033 kilowatts/turbine

12.36 kWh/day

35 kWh/day

6.5 kWh/day

0.79 kWh/day

375.95 kWh/month

1,058.5 kWh/month

197.1 kWh/month

24.1 kWh/month

One turbine will produce an approximate average of 13 kWh per day / 414 kWh month / 4,960 kWh per year Together, the 3,930 wind turbines can produce approximately 51,000 kWh per day / 19,000,000 kWh per year

The difficulty of assessing the annual energy output of the wind harvesting facade is that this is a proposed new and innovative method to integrate small-scale wind turbines to an urban building facade.

The calculations are based on Betz’s Law which determines the maximum power that can be extracted from wind.

Power (kWh) = π/2 * r² * v³ * ρ * η

This formula calculates the power of a wind turbine from size, wind speed and air density. The radius (r) refers to the size of the rotor blade. The wind speed (v) refers to one point in time. Air density (ρ) refers to the mass of air in space depending on air pressure, temperature and humidity.

The result is based on a cumulative average of kilowatt hours produced by a single turbine then the whole facade.

QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENTS How will the energy be distributed?

The energy produced by the wind harvesting facade will be distributed to the office building and the additional energy will go to charging stations for electric cars then to neighboring buildings and lastly extra energy supply will be exported to the grid for profit. Profit can be used for building maintenance which is kept by service platforms to replace individual turbines if necessary.

GROUND SOURCE HEAT

GROUND SOURCE HEAT

CATCHMENT TANK

RAIN HARVESTING FACADE The rain harvesting facade covers the north and east sides of the building. Rain chains reach from top to bottom of the building to deliver rain collected on the green roof to the drains leading to the rain catchment tank which will then filter and redistribute rainwater for utility use in the office building.

RAIN HARVESTING FACADE Integrated rain catchment to green roof.

Plantings Growing Medium Filter Fabric Drainage Membrane Root Barrier & Waterproof Membrane Plywood Deck Insulation Steel Decking Acoustic Infill Gypsum Wallboard

Toh Rain Chain

Water Catchment Filtration

The green roof and rain harvesting system will support each other and work simultaneously. The green roof will trickle water on a small angle to a gutter then down a modern rain chain. The green roof itself will insulate the building as well as provide habitat to increase biodiversity in a rather urban environment.

“Toh” is a simple, elegant cylinder shaped rain chain.

This is a modern version of the simple water collection system which directs rainwater down a linked chain.

It is made of stainless steel, coated with fluorine to protect the high quality hairline finish.

This product is made by SEO rain chain and has been used on large scale architectural facades such as the SEO headquarters in Japan.

RAIN HARVESTING FACADE Axonometric.

SERVICE PLATFORM

SANDSTONE BLOCK

HOT WATER PIPE ENCLOSED TO PREHEAT AIR GLAZING WITH ALUMINUM MULLIONS

RAIN CHAIN FACADE

STRATEGY FOR VENTILATION & CONSTRUCTION The strategy evaluates how the building services work to create a comfortable interior environment with minimal environmental impact.

Ventilation is not only essential for comfort but, for occupant health and safely.

STRATEGY Construction & Ventilation.

INSULATION

Sandstone is quarried throughout the UK. The locally sourced material has good thermal mass qualities.

VAPOR BARRIER STUD

Locally sourced materials will decrease embodied energy from transportation.

SECOND FACADE GLAZED

FLASHING

INTERIOR LOCALLY SOURCED SANDSTONE BLOCK

MULLION

EXTERIOR LOCALLY SOURCES SANDSTONE BLOCK

WALL BOARD

DOUBLE GLAZING

WINDOW CASING

VENT TO DOUBLE FACADE SUPPLY AIR RETURN AIR

STRATEGY Heat Recovery System

Fresh Air from Outside

Warm Stale Air

4

Stale Air to Outside

Pre-heated Fresh Air

Heat Exchange Core

The heat recovery ventilation system will utilize warm air that would otherwise be wasted and escape the building causing a harmful environmental impact. This system does not replace the need for heating the air from ground source heat pump but, it will make the entire process more efficient. The system uses the stale heated air from the interior and the fresh air from the exterior to heat the fresh air and expel the stale air minus the heat.

This system will be put into place at the top of the double facades and top of each atrium.

The heat recovery system brings in fresh air and heats it with stale warm air then releases the stale air (unheated) out of the building. The fresh warm air is reintroduced to the double facade. The system is assisted by fans.

3

Stale heated air is extracted within the ceiling plenum into the double facade

2

Heat is distributed to each level through the floor plenum using displacement ventilation

1

Fresh air is pre-heated in the double facade by a hot water pipe, heated via ground source heat

STRATEGY Construction & Ventilation.

SUMMER

On a detailed scale the primary ventilation strategy aims to bring fresh/ cool air in from the ground floor in the double facade. This air can be preheated in the winter months to bring warm air through the floor plenum.

Displacement ventilation will brig air in from vents in the floor and return it out of the ceiling then double facade.

A heat recovery system will then re-use the heat and excrete the stale air. The axial fan will assist this process.

EXPEL STALE AIR

HEAT RECOVERY

WINTER

This ventilation strategy allows for ultimate occupant control to turn off/on floor vents or open operable windows to supply more heat or cooling depending on the season.

CANTILEVERED VIEW POINT WIND HARVEST FACADE GLAZED FACADE SANDSTONE BLOCK CONSTRUCTION SERVICE PLATFORM AIR SUPPLY AIR RETURN

STRATEGY Summer Day Ventilation Strategy

The summer ventilation strategy utilizes fresh air brought through a fan between the glazed and brick facade and an industrial fan at the top of the atrium that will draw air upward and rent out of the building through the pivoted opening and the vents out of the double facade. An axial fan will force air up the facade to be delivered into the supply floor plenum via displacement ventilation

Ground Source Heat Pump

STRATEGY Summer Night Ventilation Strategy

The summer night ventilation strategy focuses on releasing warm air to prevent overheating from thermal mass. At night fresh air will push the warm air up and out of the building.

Ground Source Heat Pump

STRATEGY Winter Day Ventilation Strategy

Winter day uses ground source heat pump to heat a hot water pipe that will preheat the air entering the double facade, it will be pushed up the facade with a fan and distributed through the floor plenum. To prevent overheating excess warm air can be vented from the facade and the return plenum. A heat recovery system can re-circulate heat into the building.

Ground Source Heat Pump

STRATEGY Winter Night Ventilation Strategy

At night, thermal mass to heat the building. Excess warm air will be vented but vents can be shut to contain warm air and insulate the building when needed. The heat recovery system may continue the process or re-using the heat to stabilize the building temperature.

Ground Source Heat Pump

REFRENCES Click the link below to view more

https://www.maditaylordesigns.com/post/designing-productive-facades-sorrel-tower

Madison Sacramone Grace Cowan Msc Advanced Sustainable Design Sustainable Design Methodologies 2021

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