Week #5 Progress Report 5/1/13

During week 5 the group continued to research green roof systems. We began to write a draft of our final project, each writing about our assigned topics, and sharing new articles as we found them.  We decided that our final report will primarily consist of a paper that details our design plan for the system, an evaluation of the benefits and considerations, and a Revit rendering of the system.  In addition to the paper we debated creating a scale model of the final roof design, but decided that because of time constraints this idea would not be feasible. We have decided that we will be using the energy engineering program eQuest to model the current energy uses and costs of Hagerty Library, and how adding the green roof and cistern system will effect energy used and HVAC costs.

This week we found out about the group, Drexel Smart House. It is a student club that involves undergraduate and graduate students of multiple disciplines in Drexel's College of Engineering. The group has been awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in research grants in their goal to convert an existing house in Powelton Village into a living laboratory for the most environmentally friendly building possible, involving a living roof, storm water collection and rain filtration systems, and using environmentally friendly construction materials. In terms of their green roof, they are currently working on the development of an extremely light soil that allows water to transpire easily, and are growing sedum plants to be used on their roof in the University greenhouse.

Drexel Smart House from Drexel Smart House on Vimeo.