Week #8 Progress Report 5/24/13

This week, our final design has been solidified. Our CAD and Revit work is just about complete. From this point on, the group will focus on editing our final paper, adding our energy calculations, and creating a PowerPoint to aid our final presentation. We did additional check to verify the costs of adding a green roof, cistern, and solar panels to the roof. Our takeaway in class this week was to make PowerPoint that is coherent, with a few diagrams, and little text. We will practice our presentation at least three times. We had some difficulty in our final report in condensing the research we had about green roofs, and will continue to edit and polish our report. We want to make sure our paper will fulfill the guidelines provided in the report template.

Week #7 Progress Report 5/15/13

This week we are planning to continue building our small model of the green roof layers, per our modified project schedule. The model will be fitted in a small tank to easily see and label the different layers. The layers will be made up of concrete, a waterproofing layer, some drainage, then a combination substrate that is 3" thick., and some planted sedums. 

Week #6 Progress Report 5/8/13

During week six we began to solidify the draft of our paper, adding in the "engineering" aspects of the project the project. According to the revised project weekly schedule the goals for Week 6 consist of purchasing the new materials needed for a 3-D model: sand, soil and vegetation, and beginning the construction of the model. The model will represent the different layers involved in building a green roof. The green roof is a project made viable by its many benefits: these include storm water management, extending roof life, and regulating building temperature. 

Many consider storm water runoff mitigation to be the primary benefit of green roofs due to the prevalence of impervious surfaces in urban and commercial areas and a failing storm water management infrastructure. Case studies of greens roofs done by engineering group Magnusson Klemencic Associates to quantify the costs of green roofs and the amount of runoff they create. Optimal soil cover was found to be four inches deep—a depth that would allow plant to take root, but also provide a volume through which it is easy for water to evaporate through. The studied roofs mitigated runoff from 65 to 94%, meaning that in best conditions, only 6% of rainfall became runoff, and cost of adding a green roof to a building costs about seven dollars per square foot. Another study shows that average percentage of roof rainfall retention ranged from 48.7% (gravel) to 82.8% (vegetated), highlighting that the significant element in retaining the storm water was the goring medium (soil), rather than the plants. 

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.

Week #4 Progress Report 4/24/13

During Week 4 the group presented and shared their research. We created a collaborative document with Google Docs in order to effectively categorize our research and outline our essay.  The document allowed all the research collected to be categorized by subject. This week we received dozens files of the architectural and building system diagrams. The drawings available were extensive; there were plans of the building's HVAC, structural, and mechanical systems. We lowered the number to about four that are relevant to our project, including the roof layout, stairs and elevators, and plumbing system. A basic model of Hagerty Library was found to be available on Google Sketchup. A Revitt model of the library was started this week.

In line with thinking about building systems, the addition of a green roof can significantly impact the microclimate of the building. It is essentially adding an additional layer of insulation to the roof. It is estimated that the green roof influences the temperature of the building by up to a 25 degrees Celsius temperature difference in a regularly irrigated five story building. Adding many living roofs to a city could help mitigate the urban heat island effect, by decreasing the amount of heated surfaces. An urban heat island is a urban area, significantly warmer than its surroundings. When comparing the area of a green roof to that of a gravel roof, the temperature difference can be as radical as 30 degrees Celsius.

Week #3 Progress report 4/17/13

During week 3 the group shared our research from week 2, and continued to research. The research was broken up research in to specific topics.  Each member group was assigned a topic.  Molly and Paulina looked into water quality and use, Stephanie researched making roofs into public spaces, Craig looked up storm-water collection, and Yosep learned about solar panels.Splitting the topics up allowed the group to take a more focused approach with the research.

After initially familiarizing ourselves with green roofs, their construction, and benefits, we began to use engineering databases with professional, scholarly resources. We made use of Knovel, for plumbing and environmental design handbooks, as well as Proquest, ASCE Library, and Google Scholar for a variety of studies including heat islands in cities, the insulation effect a green roof gives, the influence of different variables in construction, soil type, and plant type. State and federal websites helped us learn about safety standards regarding rainwater collection, and the green infrastructure projects going on in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia has is place a 25 year plan called Green City, Clean Waters. It's actually a uniquely eco friendly approach for the city to deal with its storm water run off issues. Basically when it rains, the water throughout the city collects all types of pollutants from animal waste, to nitrates and car grease. This water cannot go into the ground because cities are made up of mostly impervious surfaces, like concrete sidewalks, roads, and gravel roofs. The contaminated water enters what are often combined sewer systems, which will release the water into nearby tributaries, dams, and rivers. This pollutes sources of water, and cam even contaminate drinking supply.

Rather than overhauling the sewer system of an entire city, the focus of Green City, Clean Waters is to use green infrastructure to address these long term issues, which need to be dealt with as the pipes age. Many key strategies have been using stormwater planters, to catch water in soil before it reaches the sewers, replacing roads with a porous pavement that allows water to travel into the soil below, implementing green roofs to decrease the amount of impervious surfaces, and implement rain barrels or cisterns in both homes and businesses. Since the start of the program, runoff has been reduced by 1.5 billion gallons annually.  

Week #2 Progress Report 4/10/13

During week 2 the group changed our design plan.  We decided that a traditional green roof would be a more practical approach. Planting a green roof would allow for improved storm water management, collection of storm water, and would create a public space. We planned to use the roof of Hagerty Library as the hypothetical building sight for the green roof.  Hagerty Library offers a relatively large area with easy access from already existing staircases, in addition the green roof would serve as a focal point for the University in the center of campus.

Hagerty Library

We finalized some of our design ideas. It was decided that a system should be built to collect the excess storm-water, which will be used as grey water in the toilets of the Library.  The main goal of week 2 was to research green roof technologies and design ideas for our green roof.  We created a collaborative Google Document to share our individual research and give feedback to other group members. It was very helpful to give group members different roles or to put everyone "in charge" of a particular research topic. It facilitated work flow, but everyone was still able to contribute and learn about each topic.

We started with simple searches on Google and Youtube to gain familiarity with the topic of green roofs, and why they are built.

This video, from the Chicago Botanical Garden, made us consider the maintenance of our garden, and how much time and resources would have to be put into the garden. The Chicago gardens have lived through fairly harsh conditions with very little weeding or irrigation, but the video made us begin to think about the types of species that should be planted. Our garden wouldn't be too extensive, with a soil depth of possibly three or four inches, with mostly low growing sedum plants, grasses and some shrubs that are drought resistant and native to the Philadelphia area. Our group also had the idea to include students in the new green roof, not just by making it a public area, but by making garden maintenance a volunteering opportunity for Drexel's freshman students, who need to perform five hours of community service. This will help involve students in their school, and provide an opportunity to learn about green roofs and horticulture.

A variety of sedums appropriate for green roofs.