Building Performance Measurement

BUILDING PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

ARCH232 - Architecture and Cultural History III

The third course in a series tracing the history of Western culture through its architecture from the early Paleolithic Age to the 20th century.

Activity

Students, in teams of 4-5, are tasked with collecting building performance measurements on assigned buildings in Portland, Oregon from different historic periods: pre-modern, modern, and after-modern. Through the use of a Vernier Labquest 2 and various sensors, the groups go to their respective building and observe and collect data by measuring the primary factors influencing human comfort: light intensity, UV-A, sound, ambient air temperature, and surface temperature. The intent is for each student to select a sensor and become educated in the building science phenomenon it can be used to measure. In this way, students become resident "experts" on a specific topic for their group. Each group collectively analyzes their data and synthesizes their findings with the knowledge acquired through class and literary research on their bulding, presenting their findings to the class. As a result, in the context of an architectural history course, students are able to understand the relationship between building performance and historic context as they compare their findings with buildings from different periods.

If you wish to conduct the below activity and for full resolution PDFs and editable documents of the above worksheets, please contact BUILT. The sheets are free and available to anyone, we just ask for your contacting so that we may keep track of the extent and range of our outreach.