Blog Post 4: Building Type and Intelligence (Deutsch & Tufano)

I am working with Alyssia Deutsch for our term project on building type and intelligence. Our idea for this project is to submit a research paper compassing a small family home that is very 'smart' and 'green' with the materials used to make it. Since we are both structural concentrations, the structural stability of the building is what is most important to us. For this reason, we are focusing on using recycled and self-healing or lightweight concrete. 

This building will meet all requirements to be a LEED certified home. With meeting the requirements for a LEED certified home, we are able to produce a house that will use less energy and less water.  Since people mostly focus on LEED certifying tall buildings and buildings used by the public, they tend to forget that people’s homes can also be made green as well. It may not have that much of an impact as a tall building would have being LEED certified but it is still helping the environment long throughout the construction process. Another aspect of our project is that the materials used to build the house are going to be transported from the closest means to cut back on the cost of the house during the construction process. 

Way to reduce energy in the house construction process will be to include solar panels on the roof, solar water heaters, solar air conditioning and small wind turbines. These also don't have to be done during the construction stages, they can be done on any home at any time. We are just completing them during the construction stage for our term paper. 

The façade is another aspect of the house this will be ‘green’ and ‘smart’ without a doubt. Since façade are always in contact with the weather outside they have to be extremely stable. We are planning on constructing the façade to be very stable while also being made of a lightweight material that will cost less but also keep the house insulated to comfortable temperatures. Throughout our project, we want to prove that it will be better if homes were also made as green and efficient as big public buildings are.

Gibson

After reading your blog post about the topic to research the difference between "intelligent" and "green" buildings I am thinking of researching the same as background information for my project. I think that there is definitely a difference between those words. However people tend to use them interchangeably and I am also guilty of that myself. The picture that you included in the blog post helps me to visualize that there is in fact a difference between "intelligent" and "green" buildings and building materials.

Wicker

After reading your blog post about your variation of comparing intelligent and green buildings I learned that intelligent buildings are used to make buildings more green. In a way these words mean something similar but they actually mean that if the building is built intelligently with solar panels for example, it is better for the environment because you are using a form of energy that is better. Therefore the reason that it is then called a green building. You explained this very clearly thank you.

Sherry

After reading your blog post about building automation on healthcare facilities was a refreshing topic considering so many people are doing a variation of intelligent and green buildings. I think it's great that you can incorporate your senior design project into the project for his class. It shows that you are very passionate about the topic and it should be that much better for that reason. The internet of things is all around us, you might not even realize it sometimes so I think that this is a very current topic.