Y-HOUSE DOUBLE SKIN FACADE | SOLAR DECATHLON CHINA
Facade Team:
Thomas Jefferson University College of Architecture and the Built Environment + Industry Advisors.
Student Designers: Cynthia Baublitz, Olivia Birriteri, Norman Engel, Saifeldin Hussein, Mathew Ledner, Nicholas Lockard, Ryan McMahon, Cevan Noell, Eric Rushinski, Anthony Sclafani, Jack Whalen
Faculty: Kihong Ku, DDes
Industry Advisors: Alex Worden & Audrey Worden - StudioTJOA, Marco Cimillo - XJTLU Faculty, Petra Stanev & Ryan Lohbauer - Stanev Pots Architects, John Shields - Point B Design, Florian Meier - Knippers Helbig, Mathew Naugle - New Hudson Facades, Mathew Cleary - Sage Glass, Bjoern Beckert - Fabritecture
Our Role: Facade design assistance, detailing consulting and review, thermal modeling, construction/ fabrication feasibility.
Location: Zhangjiakou, China
Completed: Expected October 2021
Project description: The Y-house Project is one of fifteen finalists who were selected to build their projects for the Solar Decathlon China 2021 exhibition. TJOA connected with Professor Kihong Ku early in the fall semester of 2020 due to our experience with ETFE cladding structures and our double skin proposal “Thermalswitch”
Over the course of the next two semesters, Fall ‘20 and Spring ‘21, TJOA met virtually with Professor Ku and the students bi-weekly to discuss detailing, feasibility, construction methodology and thermal performance. TJOA provided redlines and markups during the DD and CD process.
As with most projects, there were multiple tracks for the exterior skin systems. The primary exploration was the ETFE pillow option (Team 1) and the single ply stretched ETFE option (Team 2). These two options ran parallel tracks and were reviewed with TJOA to determine their feasibility in construction and price. Never the less, the base concept remained the same, the exterior skin is to act as a primary buffer for bulk air/ water migration and is set off the interior envelope which is made up of biotiles, sheathing, and straw bales. The Y-House project is one of the first explorations in a ETFE double skin for a residential home and TJOA is so excited to have been able to participate in this project. For additional information on the project please see the links at the bottom of this page.
TJOA Partners and Professor Ku of Thomas Jefferson University are continuing their collaboration in a paper for the Facade Tectonics World Congress 2022.
*Splash page rendering by Olivia Birritteri
Rendering courtesy of FlyingArchitecture.com
Rendering courtesy of FlyingArchitecture.com
Below are samples of TJOA‘s markups from the Design Document progress print set.
Above are construction photos from the project site in Zhangjiakou, China
Animation and videos are courtesy of Thomas Jefferson University and the College of Architecture and the Built Environment
Additional Links:
http://www.jeffersonspacework.com/solar-decathlon-china-21.html
https://ideastudo.com/solar-decathlon-china-2021/
https://www.xjtlu.edu.cn/en/news/2022/02/students-unite-in-%E2%80%98olympic%E2%80%99-contest-for-sustainable-homes
