SHADING DESIGN FOR A PASSIVE HOUSE COMMUNITY CENTER
LOCATION
British Columbia
YEAR 2017
ARCHITECT hcma
ROLE Sustainability coordinator
Keywords | shading design, solar radiation, cooling loads
YEAR 2017
ARCHITECT hcma
ROLE Sustainability coordinator
Keywords | shading design, solar radiation, cooling loads
Located in the lower mainland of British Columbia, this 76,000 sqft community centre is the biggest Passive House (PH) certified community building in North America. Unlike the typical heating challenge of the PH certification in our climate, the energy model of this project showed concerns regarding cooling loads as the internal heat gains from lighting and occupants are considerable. Tasked to find ways to reduce the cooling loads, a handful of strategies were considered: reviewing the insulation thickness around the building, reducing the solar heat gain coefficient of the windows, providing natural ventilation, and adding shading devices. This page shows solar radiation and daylight autonomy simulations done using shading designs to numerically quantify the reduction in solar heat gains and lighting loads.