Sustainable Cafe

This project was for a sustainability class and had the focus of maximising the comfort of Café on Fredrick St.

First, I had to do an in-depth site analysis. I looked at potential flood risk, existing drainage, sun shading, and wind. In heavy rain, the site was susceptible to flood risk. To address this, bioswales and a new drainage system using perforated pipes are incorporated into the design. Native New Zealand vegetation was also used to mitigate water pooling and wind.

Thermal comfort, energy efficiency, and usable daylight were measured using graphs in an automated Grasshopper script (Grasshopper is a plugin for Rhino). From this information, the best combination of position, materials, and windows was found for the café to allow for passive solar heating and reduce the risk of glare. From that information, the required artificial lighting and acoustic tiles were identified to create the most comfortable design.