You are invited to join Dr. Forrest Meggers, who runs the Low Exergy Module of the Future Cities Laboratory, for a Roundtable Discussion with SUMA students on November 28th at 5pm. The discussion will include insights from his work on how architecture can be informed by integrated low energy systems that expand space and flexibility in design. This event is a must for built environment enthusiasts!
LowEx Buildings Roundtable Discussion
Wednesday, November 28th
5pm – 6pm
2929 Broadway – Earth Institute Conference Room
Dr. Forrest Meggers
Dr. Forrest received his PhD in May 2011 under Professor Leibundgut in the Building Systems Group of the Institute for Technology in Architecture at the ETH Zurich. He researched integrated low exergy building systems and is the author of several papers on the subject. He received a Master of Science degree in Environmental Engineering, researching sustainable buildings and he received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with High Distinction in Mechanical Engineering, both from the University of Iowa in the United States. He is also a LEED accredited professional and has served on several committees from the USGBC. He is committed to reducing the significant contribution to global CO2 emissions from the building sector which he researched under Dr James Hansen at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) before coming to Switzerland where he began his work on new low exergy technologies to address the energy and CO2 problem of buildings.
Building energy efficiency and building technology have often been seen by architects as nemesis to design freedom. Walls must have thick insulation and space must be allocated for ducting and piping systems, which must them be hidden. LowEx building philosophy removes these constraints. We can show how building technologies can be integrated into the structural fabric of a building while providing the heating and cooling needs with half the energy of standard systems. Energy reduction is achieved through simple thermodynamics, independent of building insulation and construction, thereby facilitating very efficient operation without massive restrictions to facade and shell design. In turn, the reduced electricity demand to operate the building systems, facilitates the generation of this demand on sight through integrated renewables. All this is achieved through low exergy systems, and a truly integrated design framework, which means not just having the civil, mechanical and architectural designers using the same BIM software, but actually inventing and creating the building concept together and simultaneously solving their design problems. Integrated design is a buzzword that could be done much more effectively if more designers were willing to leave their comfort zone, and not just cross, but smash the barriers between disciplines involved in building creation. LowEx is one philosophy that does a good job of facilitating this type of action and we will demonstrate how it works and where it has been successfully implemented in the European (Switzerland/Germany) and the Tropical (Singapore/Indonesia/Malaysia) context.
SUMASA 