The ”Latitudo Borealis”, means the climatic regions in the northern hemisphere. This project explored and developed a new timber wall assembly that can reverse the winter heat flow across building envelopes in order to improve the energy performance of the buildings in northern climatic regions. 

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In order to prevent the heat from escaping from buildings in the winter, the project developed a series of wall assemblies that take advantage of solar radiation to direct the outside heat into the building by layering the combinations of shading devices, heat absorbers, phase change materials (PCM), and cross-laminated timber (CLT) panel configurations. We initially developed four types of assemblies and conducted the experiment of the heat flow and the indoors and outdoors temperature to compare their performance. Based on the data, we calculated the annual energy cost and evaluated the assemblies. The combination of the heat absorber, PCM and the shading device was selected as a result.

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The project also took advantage of the genetic algorithm-based optimization process that utilizes detailed solar radiation data in order to design hyper-localized shading systems. Through this optimization process, the shading system of the envelope was designed to enable the “reverse heat flow effect”, which is blocking the summer radiation while allowing the winter radiation flow in. This process resulted in the unique wavy patterns in the final shadings.

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The prototypical shading system was fabricated with heat-bent wood slats. The fabrication process was automated with a robotic arm controlled by computer algorithms, in order to produce the highly variable forms developed by the optimization process. 

 

Finally, this project imagined the proposed wall section typologies and fabrication methods being deployed in Austria, where the climate is ideal for capturing the benefits of the reverse heat flow effect.  Our team developed a speculative pavilion design located in a wilderness preserve in Feldkirch as a testbed for these technologies. 

 

Latitudo Borealis was developed with financial support from the 2017 Research Through Making program at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

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