"For many contemporary designers, architecture is still about designing static environments.. As a matter of fact, the emergence of devices and sensors increasingly embedded into buildings that provide dynamic information on its behaviour: comfort conditions, energy usage but also user interaction. A full set of technologies is calling for the inclusion in design of these dynamic issues, reacting to house behavior, and therefore pushes the boundary of a domain once confined in the definition of “Domotics”. For many technicians, Domotics is about automation: users are “clients” of the system, their involvement is not requested at any time, since everything is pre-establishing the behaviour of systems at given conditions. Automation is considered the final achievement of these systems, but its independency can become very frustrating for the inhabitants, that have no control and understading of what happens around them.. . This paper will present a different approach, where automation is reduced in favor of documentation. It will be explained using as case study the experimental Home Automation system built for the MED in Italy housing prototype, that participated to the Solar Decathlon Europe 2012 competition. The competition involved 20 prototypes of highly energy efficient houses compared in their performance, by checking parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, CO2, energy production and consumption, during two weeks, while the homes were inhabited and used by the member of the competing teams.. . In the Solar Decathlon competition, then, not only houses are compared, but teams are involved, since they have to simulate the normal life of a house as perfect housewives: cooking, showers, washing and drying clothes are done daily, as well as other activities such as home electronics. In the case of MED in Italy, users were, in addition, participating actively to the management of the house energy behaviour. The first, and most important step of this involvement, has been information.. . The Home Automation strategy of MED in Italy is, above all, an information machine for the team members and the future users. It relies on a web-based system, where all data on the behavior of the house are saved in order to build up a “timeline” of house use. A crucial aspect of the system is, in fact, the possibility for the users to perform actions that can impact performance: opening windows for ventilation, turning on and off devices at different times of the day and with different weather conditions and therefore of production, and so on. In MED in Italy, this active role of inhabitants recalls, as in other aspects of the project, the Mediterranean tradition, where a strong passive behaviour of the house envelope guarantees an optimal performance against the heat, but is combined with a know-how on how to use the house, what to maintain open and when, when to close curtains, when to ventilate, and so on. Such know-how is one of strongest aspect of that tradition, where Mediterranean is, above all, a lifestyle.. . The Home automation systems of the MED in Italy prototype recalls this tradition in contemporary culture, and translates it with digital technologies, that build what has been defined a “Dwelling Green Box”, because it applies to Green Houses the concept of data saving of a black box, such as the one included in ships, trains and airplanes . These data, in this case, become transparent and available thanks to a data flux that is established between a local server with a network of wireless sensors, and a remote database, where data are sent every 15 minutes. Everything is then made available to users over the web, with a complex interface where one can go back in time, and explore the consequences of its actions on the house behavior through different kinds of graphs and data visualizations. the most relevant addition has been a 3D data interface to the house, using the innovative standard called WebGL, used among others, by Google. The aim is to share the house behavior across users, share it and compare it in a social network of home, built with web technology. All made to subtract technical behavior of the house to technicians, and finally put the users as protagonists of a space built not “for” them, but finally “around” them."
Converso, S., Tonelli, C., Bellingeri, G. (2013). More documentation, less automation. A strategy of user involvement in domotics at Solar Decathlon 2012. In Architectural Education and the Reality of the Ideal: Environmental design for innovation in the post-crisis world (pp.717-726). EAAE Transactions on architectural education..
More documentation, less automation. A strategy of user involvement in domotics at Solar Decathlon 2012
CONVERSO, STEFANO;TONELLI, CHIARA;BELLINGERI, Gabriele
2013-01-01
Abstract
"For many contemporary designers, architecture is still about designing static environments.. As a matter of fact, the emergence of devices and sensors increasingly embedded into buildings that provide dynamic information on its behaviour: comfort conditions, energy usage but also user interaction. A full set of technologies is calling for the inclusion in design of these dynamic issues, reacting to house behavior, and therefore pushes the boundary of a domain once confined in the definition of “Domotics”. For many technicians, Domotics is about automation: users are “clients” of the system, their involvement is not requested at any time, since everything is pre-establishing the behaviour of systems at given conditions. Automation is considered the final achievement of these systems, but its independency can become very frustrating for the inhabitants, that have no control and understading of what happens around them.. . This paper will present a different approach, where automation is reduced in favor of documentation. It will be explained using as case study the experimental Home Automation system built for the MED in Italy housing prototype, that participated to the Solar Decathlon Europe 2012 competition. The competition involved 20 prototypes of highly energy efficient houses compared in their performance, by checking parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, CO2, energy production and consumption, during two weeks, while the homes were inhabited and used by the member of the competing teams.. . In the Solar Decathlon competition, then, not only houses are compared, but teams are involved, since they have to simulate the normal life of a house as perfect housewives: cooking, showers, washing and drying clothes are done daily, as well as other activities such as home electronics. In the case of MED in Italy, users were, in addition, participating actively to the management of the house energy behaviour. The first, and most important step of this involvement, has been information.. . The Home Automation strategy of MED in Italy is, above all, an information machine for the team members and the future users. It relies on a web-based system, where all data on the behavior of the house are saved in order to build up a “timeline” of house use. A crucial aspect of the system is, in fact, the possibility for the users to perform actions that can impact performance: opening windows for ventilation, turning on and off devices at different times of the day and with different weather conditions and therefore of production, and so on. In MED in Italy, this active role of inhabitants recalls, as in other aspects of the project, the Mediterranean tradition, where a strong passive behaviour of the house envelope guarantees an optimal performance against the heat, but is combined with a know-how on how to use the house, what to maintain open and when, when to close curtains, when to ventilate, and so on. Such know-how is one of strongest aspect of that tradition, where Mediterranean is, above all, a lifestyle.. . The Home automation systems of the MED in Italy prototype recalls this tradition in contemporary culture, and translates it with digital technologies, that build what has been defined a “Dwelling Green Box”, because it applies to Green Houses the concept of data saving of a black box, such as the one included in ships, trains and airplanes . These data, in this case, become transparent and available thanks to a data flux that is established between a local server with a network of wireless sensors, and a remote database, where data are sent every 15 minutes. Everything is then made available to users over the web, with a complex interface where one can go back in time, and explore the consequences of its actions on the house behavior through different kinds of graphs and data visualizations. the most relevant addition has been a 3D data interface to the house, using the innovative standard called WebGL, used among others, by Google. The aim is to share the house behavior across users, share it and compare it in a social network of home, built with web technology. All made to subtract technical behavior of the house to technicians, and finally put the users as protagonists of a space built not “for” them, but finally “around” them."I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
