IDeAs - Integrated design

Daylighting	Natural ventilation/radiant heat	Ground Source Heat	Integrated design
Advanced Glazing & Insulation	Energy-saving office equipment	Renovation Not Green-field
Energy-efficient lighting	Energy Control & Monitoring	Building-integrated photovoltaics

The design team took a highly integrated approach to achieving this building’s zero energy/zero carbon emission design goals. Early in their decision-making processes, Architects, HVAC engineers, lighting, daylighting designers, materials suppliers, and construction collaborators shared their challenges and solutions with each other. Energy and daylight simulations along with 3D renderings and other tools facilitated communication and collaboration. This integrated design approach proved to be key to finding breakthrough solutions.

Early Simulation predicting Daylight Effects on North Wall	Actual Daylight Effects on North Wall

	Spot Light Placement for Heliodon IDeAs daylighting designers and architecture partners ran studies to simulate the light and shading effects that occur as the sun moves over the building through the course of a day and from season to season. Prototypes are studied with a heliodon that features variable settings for the orientation of the building on the planet, the time of year and the time of day. These studies are key to deciding the placement and dimensions of features like overhangs and skylight framing.
	Sloped Skylight Frame Heliodon studies can be used to optimize interior daylight effects. This building’s skylight frames are precisely sloped to minimize their shading of the photovoltaic panels.
	Daylighting Contour Model A number of design tools were used to size and position the skylights in the main studio, including a physical daylighting model, AGI32 (AGI32 V1.9) and Radiance daylighting software and SkyCalc (Skycalc V1.1) skylight design software. The design consists of a 3 x 3 grid of 34“x 46” skylights, plus an additional row of three 21”x72” skylights along the north wall providing an average of 111 fc at solar noon in summer, and 40 fc at solar noon in winter under clear sky conditions.
	Z² Design Facility In any building, all the systems affect one another. However, in a highly integrated building design, the relationships become critically infused in the overall functionality. A skylight becomes a key component of daylighting, HVAC, architecture, structural and electrical designs to boot. As a result, value engineering becomes very difficult. The building is a complete system with few opportunities to make substitutions or to eliminate parts and pieces.