Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory
The Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory's (ESBL) research projects are directed at understanding how buildings and related transportation and land use systems determine energy and resource use; developing new materials, components, assemblies, whole buildings, and communities with improved performance; and developing design tools that enable professionals to design more efficient communities and buildings. Our staff includes architects, engineers, and computer scientists with experience on a broad range of projects. We also draw on other university faculty members in physics; planning, public policy and management; business; economics; landscape architecture; architecture; and other research groups as necessary to address the unique requirements of each project. Our facilities include a computer simulation laboratory, two artificial skies, a heliodon, and a boundary layer wind tunnel.
In the past twenty years, we have completed $16 million of research supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Bonneville Power Administration, the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, Office of Technology Assessment, U.S. Department of Education, Pacific Northwest Laboratories, National Endowment for the Arts, Oregon Department of Transportation, utility companies, and industry.
Recent projects have included an assessment of the impact of global warming on building energy use in the next fifty years; the development of expert-system modules that suggest better performing building massing alternatives to architectural designers based on an evaluation of the designers' preliminary CAD drawings; and energy evaluation software for the napkin stage of design that features complete graphic input and output in order to be compatible with architectural designers' method of working in graphic rather than numerical abstractions. We are currently working on energy software for industrialized housing producers that includes an energy module for existing CAD software, and on a tool for a manufacturer of stressed-skin insulating core panels that gives a bill of materials as well as an energy evaluation based on sketches scanned into the computer.
We have done extensive domestic and foreign evaluations of HUD code, modular, and panel producers to understand the processes they use to sell, design, and produce houses. We have analyzed conflicting statistics on the housing industry and synthesized these into a composite picture of what has happened to the market share of industrialized producers over the last decade. We recently completed a low-cost house to demonstrate how stressed-skin panels can be used to increase energy performance and reduce first cost. We have completed integrated use studies (buildings, transportation, open space) for the Island of Culebra, Puerto Rico, and the Whiteaker Neighborhood in Eugene, Oregon.
We conduct a design assistance program for architects, sponsored by utilities, which uses the artificial sky, heliodon, and computer simulations to recommend proposed building design changes. In addition to research, we also have written several textbooks and conducted workshops and seminars for engineers, architects, and citizens on how to design energy-efficient buildings and communities.
Contact: G. Z. Brown
Department of Architecture
1206 University of Oregon
Eugene OR 97403-1206
Ph: (541) 346-5647; Fax: (541) 346-3626
E-mail: gzbrown@uoregon.edu