ABSTRACT
Building energy modellers get into all sorts of trouble when others expect too much of their models. Building energy modelling is simply defined as the ‘practice of using computer-based simulation software to perform a detailed analysis of a building’s energy use and energy-using systems’. Energy modellers have concurrently matured their workflows but struggled to achieve a seamless and efficient feedback loop between analysis and design. KieranTimberlake’s understanding of landscape’s role in shaping microclimate and outdoor comfort is formed principally through first-hand experience: well-shaded green space offers welcoming respite from a hot summer sun. The importance of considering vegetation as an energy model input became apparent to KieranTimberlake’s team during an investigation of an existing masonry structure at the Philadelphia Navy Yard that would soon undergo a deep retrofit. KieranTimberlake’s in-house efforts to unpack the energy model and spatially visualise the solar radiation in elevation helped the design team gain intuition and guided their glazing specification.
