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Summary of Entries
There were 91 Case Studies submitted to the Vital Signs 1996 Student Competition. These
came from 22 faculty at 19 schools across both the U.S. and Canada. A total of 279
students participated, 233 of them were undergraduates and 46 were graduate students. The
identities of submitting schools, faculty, and students were kept completely confidential
throughout the review process. After independently reviewing the anonymous entries, the
jury met on Friday, January 24, at the PG&E Energy Center, San Francisco, California,
to discuss the case studies and select the winners. The jury report, summarizing their
comments on the winning case studies and the competition entries overall, will be
available on the Vital Signs Web site within a few weeks. The winning entries will be
published here in coming months.
1st Place:
A Tale of Two Houses: Environmental Quality,
Sustainability, and Indoor Comfort
inside Hassan Fathy's Mit Rehan and A Contemporary Villa in Cairo, Egypt
Ihab Elzeyadi
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Advisor: Michael Utzinger
$2000 to student, $1000 to school.
A contemporary modern low mass house with sophisticated
thermal insulation technologies in Cairo, Egypt.
Beginning with three clear hypotheses, this study examined and compared the perceived
environmental quality, thermal comfort, and energy conservation between two houses in
Cairo - Hassan Fathy's neo-traditional high thermal mass courtyard house, and a
contemporary modern low mass house with more sophisticated thermal insulation
technologies. Methods included temperature and humidity measurements during a one-week
period, and interviews with the occupants and members of the buildings' design teams.
A neo-traditional high thermal mass house in Cairo, Egypt.
2nd Place:
Phoenix Central Library: Thermal
Performance of a Desert Monument
Teresa Burrelsmon, Braam De Villiers, Felicity Lewis, Peyush Agarwal
University of Arizona
Advisor: Nader Chalfoun
$1000 to student team, $750 to school.
Sail-like shading devices on the north elevation of the Phoenix Public
Library.
Having received acclaim for both its architectural style and energy efficiency, this
internal load dominated building was analyzed for the consequences of architectural
decisions on its energy performance, the effectiveness of complicated energy strategies,
and the specific effects of solar radiation. After extensive on-site data collection for
input into an energy simulation program, the students analyzed building performance by
looking both at existing conditions and alternative design configurations, including fixed
shading, reduced solar access through the roof, and two-zone evaporative cooling
strategies.
A member of the winning team on-site at the Phoenix Public Library.
3rd Place:
The Waverley Plantation - Passive Cooling:
Past and Present
Geoffrey Wagner, Tracey Johnson
Mississippi State University
Advisor: Jane Greenwood
$500 to student team, $250 to school.
The Waverley Plantation House.
This case study tested how well the 1852 Waverley Mansion passively cools itself using
both stack and cross ventilation through its four-story central atrium. Under four
different conditions of open/closed windows and doors, students took temperature and
humidity measurements, and conducted air motion tests using over 100 folded-paper
pinwheels. These were compared to tests conducted in a model based on the house as it had
been originally designed, since many of its passive cooling features have since been
modified.
Folded paper pin-wheels were suspended at each of four floors to
measure air movement under differing conditions.
Honorable Mention:
Occupant Comfort Relating to Lighting Strategies
in the VeriFone Worldwide Distribution Center
Swapna Sundaram
University of California, Los Angeles
Advisor: Murray Milne
$250 to student
A work station at the Verifone Center
Using illuminance measurements and questionnaires, this study looked at how the
integration of daylighting and electric lighting impacted occupant comfort.
Honorable Mention:
An Instrumented Study of Indoor Air Quality
in Lincoln Elementary School
Kevin Koenig, Alison Hovey
Advisor: Robert Koester
Developed in a class taught by Robert Koester, Thad Godish, Robert Fisher and Jeff Culp.
Ball State University
$250 to student team
CO2 concentrations by room at Lincoln School
Based on occupant surveys, physical measurements, and observational research, this
study looked in detail at indoor air quality and occupant comfort, and how architectural
decisions contributed to the conditions.
Honorable Mention:
Liberty Elementary School
Rajat Randev
Advisor: Bruce Haglund
University of Idaho
$250 to student
Diagram showing thermal storage strategies at Liberty Elementary
School.
Looking at three primary spaces in the school, this study examined and critiqued the
performance and interactions between a broad range of design strategies - thermal mass,
daylighting, and mechanical systems. Methods included physical measurements, interviews,
analysis of utility bills, and computer simulation.
The Vital Signs Curriculum Materials Project