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Vital Signs
Performing a Case Study
What is a Case Study?
 For both
students and practicing professionals alike there is little available information
documenting the physical performance of actual buildings. Case Studies are an effective
way to generate and contribute information about the impact of design solutions on energy
performance and occupant well being. The Case Study model developed by the Vital Signs
Project asks students to seek information about performance issues of nearby buildings
through a series of field investigations. The Building Case Study is not unlike the
metaphor of a medical work-up, where doctors chart and diagnose various systems and vital
signs of the human body. Typically, a selected Case Study building will pose many exciting
questions and stories. The challenge and key to a successful Case Study is to clearly
frame the investigation with a hypothesis and a well-defined scope.
The aggregate of information collected in the building can be divided into the Building
Workup and the Case Study Dossier. The Building Workup is the narrative and graphic
portion of the building Case Study, and is the essence of the building’s
“story.” Building Workups are brief reports that provide a summary of the field
work and discussion of the findings. The Building Workup represents the portion of your
investigation that is submitted to the Competition, and is intended for distribution via
newsletters and the World Wide Web. Case Study Dossiers are collections of selected
“raw” materials from a field investigation, such as a box containing blueprints,
photographs, interview notes, survey data, simulation results and measured data generated
by the study. Materials in the Case Study Dossiers are not intended for mass distribution,
but we suggest the materials be kept by the faculty advisor and made available to others
upon request. For further discussion see the web page Case Study
Content - Building Workups vs. Case Study Dossiers.
Selecting a Building to Study
Students are encouraged to make submissions that include buildings from the following
categories.
 Historical
buildings such as the Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright.
 Architecturally influential contemporary buildings such as the Denver
Public Library by Michael Graves.
 Buildings
known for energy efficiency and environmental responsiveness such as the
Bateson Building in Sacremento, California.
 Projects representative of
a specific building type such as the Guggenheim museum. Other good choices might be
a school or office building.
These categories do not represent an exclusive pool of building work-up candidates.
Creative submissions that look at unknown but interesting buildings are encouraged as
well.
Case Study Topics and Questions
Selecting a building and a topic go hand in hand. Each building will pose many
questions of investigation. At times, motivation to pursue a Case Study investigation
stems from curiosity about a building aspect or quality.
 The Logan House
For example, has the performance of the National Audubon Society Headquarters changed over
the past few years? Is the Logan House in Florida still naturally ventilated? How
comfortable is the Douglas House (Richard Meier) with its three stories of west-facing
glazing? There are thousands of stories to be told. In particular, the Competition seeks
submissions which focus on energy use, architectural space-making, and occupant
well-being. Examples of these building performance topics were developed by the
Vital Signs Project, available in a set of Resource Packages, which were
distributed to all schools of architecture in the United States and Canada in May 1996
(see Resource Package Descriptions):
Each package covers the primary physical principles, a description of how the topic
affects design decision making, a discussion of applicable standards and practices, an
annotated bibliography, and a set of field exercises. Participants are encouraged to use
these materials and topics, although this list is not exclusive. Creative Case Studies
focusing on other building performance topics and methods related to energy-use,
architectural space-making, and occupant well-being may be submitted. Preference will not
be given to submittals that solely use the Vital Signs Resource Packages. It is
particularly important that the Case Studies focus on current performance issues existing
in buildings, as measured by direct experience rather than entries focusing only on design
intent or simulation.
Hypotheses
As you frame a Case Study, a key step is to establish a "do-able" project and
one that can successfully be brought to closure. Once a topic is selected, developing a
clearly stated hypothesis is essential to successfully framing the investigation.
An hypothesis is a best guess or proposition about the outcome of your question of
inquiry.
 Occupancy
Sensor
For example, a Case Study could look at a local building recently installed with occupancy
sensors and energy efficient ballasts and lighting fixtures. The topics of investigation
were related to electric lighting and energy use. The question: Were the retrofit fixtures
functioning as intended by the designer? The hypothesis: The occupancy sensors controlling
the lighting fixtures were not operating as designed. If the sensors were
“tuned” (modified settings, cleaned, and/or fixed), an improved performance
would be observed and energy use would decrease.
When the question and hypothesis are carefully constructed, certain methods of
investigation become evident in order to gather quantifiable data to support or refute
the question. It is important that your method is appropriately planned to collect the
information necessary to answer your question, or prove your hypothesis to be right or
wrong. Examples of methods of investigation include observation, interview, survey, and
physical measurement.
The Vital Signs Resource Packages provide exercises to guide students through a series of
field measurement protocols, fashioned in three general levels of detail.
Level 1: Brief visit, limited equipment instrumentation appropriate for a
single-day visit. Involves observations, interviews, and survey techniques.
Level 2: Visits over a few weeks, using hand-held equipment, builds on Level 1
techniques. Collection of physical measurements and modest simulation exercises.
Level 3: Study over a longer period of time using data acquisition systems. Adds
time-series data collection to procedures in Levels 1 and 2.
Competition evaluation will not favor one level of investigation over another. The
important factors will be a match between your hypothes(es) and the methods selected to
investigate them, a careful and critical analysis of the information collected, and a
clear presentation of the results.
 New miniature,
microprocessor-based data acquisition systems have greatly increased the ease and power of
performance monitoring. The microcomputer interface to some of these data acquisition
systems allows an automated process requiring little specialized skill on the user’s
part. See section on Resources for more information sources for equipment.
One handy device has been the Hobo datalogger. This
matchbox-sized device costs approximately $100 and is capable of measuring and storing temperature, light, voltage, or humidity data for a designated period of time,
when launched from a MAC or IBM computer.
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