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College of Architecture and Construction Management 2022-2023 Projects

Click here to return to the main project listings page. Questions: Email our@kennesaw.edu.

  • 2022-2023 First Year Scholars: Allen Yun, Civil Engineering  Larri Santamaria, Civil Engineering

    • What will cities look like 30 years from now? What is the future of building materials?

      This research project seeks to bridge the gap between material science and construction, looking at sustainable approaches to designing new buildings and infrastructures. It can take decades for a breakthrough in engineering from a lab to a building site. This research embraces the need for innovative architectural forms while building upon structural design principles to create a new generation of smart materials.

      Students working on this research project will investigate the use of sustainable approaches in building materials of the future to (1) achieve more economical construction, (2) improve sustainability and resilience, and (3) advance architectural forms and forces.

      The goal is to advance our fundamental understanding of cementitious materials and their construction in an effort to marry architectural form and structural design. The last hundred years in architecture and civil engineering have been widely dominated by the use of concrete, which became the second most consumed commodity after water. Although concrete and cementitious materials have a low embodied energy (approximately 0.90 MJ/kg), they are used in vast quantities. In 2019, cement production amounted to approximately 3.2 billion tons, with production and usage accounting for almost 8-9% of total global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

      This research aims to impact the embodied energy and the carbon emission associated with new concrete constructions by possibly saving up to 30% in concrete volume compared to an equivalent strength prismatic member. This research thus offers exciting opportunities for engineers and architects to move towards a more sustainable construction industry.

    • By working on this project, students can expect to improve on two separate sets of skills: technical and professional.

      Depending on your background (architecture, construction management, engineering, etc.), you will be challenged with the idea of sustainability and sustainable approaches at different levels. To address the research questions, you will be working in a multidisciplinary group that includes students from architecture to engineering, as the project requires expertise in different areas. This approach will provide you with a unique opportunity to work in a dynamic research environment that will foster your understanding of research problems and will help you to build fundamental skills for your future career. 

      Specific outcomes include:

      1. Understanding the role of previous research and literature review in the broad context of research (i.e., define the terminology associated with research and theory in advanced cementitious materials; describe past research studies and critically analyze past research in concrete formwork, and articulate how their research study makes a contribution to the field).
      2. Learning how to develop a matrix for tests and conduct laboratory experiments (i.e., understand the role of ASTM standard tests in material characterization; design and performing of material characterization test, specifically in compressive and tensile properties; analyze and interpretation of the test data from concrete and steel tests).
      3. Being able to design and build small-scale prototypes(i.e., design of concrete elements using digital tools; design of concrete elements including formwork, materials requirement for cast, and procedures for concrete curing).
      4. Developing skills in communication and public speaking. This learning objective is specifically important as it will teach you how to disseminate and transfer individual knowledge in a work environment.

    • Students will meet with faculty for 1 hour per week and can work remotely otherwise. Some of the tasks include:

      1. Architectural and engineering design.
      2. Drawing and formwork design (Rhino, Photoshop, Illustrator)
      3. Casting concrete (mix design, materials procurement, casting, and cleaning)
      4. Data analysis and presentation
    • Face-to-face
    • Dr. Giovanni Loreto, gloreto@kennesaw.edu

  • 2022-2023 First Year Scholars: Andrew Welch, Civil Engineering  Esmeralda Zuniga, Environmental Engineering  Joah Massey, Architecture  Logan Smith, Architecture

    • Buildings — including material production, construction, operation, and maintenance — are responsible for more than 55% of global energy use, way more than transportation, industrial and agricultural production combined. To achieve a sustainable balance between the built and natural environments and guarantee healthy and productive lives for future generations, we must rethink the way we design and construct buildings in order to minimize their energy use. Daylighting is one of the fundamental green design strategies, which has direct implications for work productivity, wellbeing, and safety. Architects strive to increase the levels of daylighting in houses, workplaces, educational buildings, and healthcare facilities either by increasing the amount of fenestration or by limiting the depth of floorplates so that most spaces in buildings are close to the daylight perimeter. Meanwhile, daylight buildings not only make for happier and healthier tenants, but they also require less energy for artificial lighting. But there is a catch, which comes bundled in three main issues: First, the more we elongate buildings to minimize floorplate depth, the longer the length of the building envelope thus the total construction cost; Second, due to longer envelopes, skinny buildings are more prone to energy loss through their perimeters and thus require more energy for cooling and heating; Third, in most climatic zones, buildings with elongated floorplates could be prone to overheating due to direct sunlight when shading is not considered well.

      The project seeks to raise students’ understanding about the effect of basic building design on daylight levels, energy use, as related to sustainable design goals. Students will analyze a large stock of buildings in KSU campuses and the surrounding areas of Cobb County focusing on the shape and size of building floorplates. Relying on simple measurements of daylight levels, and the well-established precedent normative indices, students will develop a classificatory matrix that brings together building area, envelope area, and daylight levels as a derivative of the building floorplate shape. The classification matrix would enable the rating of various buildings from the standpoint of the optimal balance between high levels of daylighting and low envelope cost.

    • The project welcomes students from various majors including architecture, construction, engineering, those interested in sustainability in general, and quantitative methods in particular, who would be exposed to various methods of documenting, surveying, and analyzing buildings, and synthesizing the results in design and planning guidelines. The main activities involve drawing, measuring, analyzing shapes with shapeQ application, and simple statistical analysis. The activities do not assume any prerequisite knowledge of software, and simple techniques will be developed as the project progresses.

      1. Surveying building footprints using CadMapper, Google Earth or county property maps
      2. Analyzing floorplate shapes
      3. Measuring perimeter length
      4. Measuring floor areas and volumes
      5. Plotting findings into a 2D matrix
      6. Coloring floorplates according to daylight levels (using the 15-30 feet rule)
      7. Summarizing basic design principles
    • Face-to-face meetings for one hour each week, and may work remotely during the rest of the time.
    • Dr. Ermal Shpuza, eshpuza@kennesaw.edu

  • 2022-2023 First Year Scholars: Andres Villaneuva, Architecture  Daphne Vital, Environmental Engineering  Honiya Jackson, Civil Engineering  Opal Giulianelli, English

    • What makes a community sustainable, equitable and healthy to serve people of different backgrounds, resources, and abilities? What is the impact of the built environment on human health, safety, and welfare at multiple scales, from buildings to cities?

      This research instills in students a holistic understanding of Sustainable Development Goals and the role of the design process in integrating multiple factors to shape the built environment in different scales. Our projects aim to deepen understanding of diverse factors (such as socio-cultural) that impact the sustainability, equity and health in a community. The projects challenge students to solve complex problems by effective collaboration skills, emerging sustainable systems, and innovative design strategies. Students would be engaged in design research projects advocating the integration of multiple factors in shaping healthy environments — framed by diverse ecological, social, cultural, political, and economic forces.

      1. Locate primary and secondary sources related to their field of study.
      2. Synthesize and analyze past research in their field of study.
      3. Collect, analyze, synthesize, organize, and interpret data from their research study.
      4. Work effectively as part of a team.
      5. Write a research paper.
      6. Present their research/creative activity to an audience (e.g., poster, oral presentation).
      7. Present at the conferences such as KSU’s Annual Symposium of Student Scholars.

      Students are welcome to join this multidisciplinary research team from various majors -- including architecture, construction, engineering, health, business, geography, etc – as long as there are interested in advancing their understanding of “sustainability”.   

      1. Participating in regular team meeting with faculty [for 1.5 hour per week] — mostly online and working remotely.
      2. Assisting in data collection and precedent studies.
      3. Organizing data and developing literature review.
      4. Creating analytical (architectural) diagrams and design drawings — knowing Rhino/ Photoshop/ Illustrator will be a plus.
      5. Synthesizing research key findings and preparing presentations.
    • A mix of both (hybrid)
    • Dr. Pegah Zamani, pzamani@kennesaw.edu



 

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