For the Fall Semester of 2024, the group WEST, at the University of Victoria teamed up with Introba to create an exciting design challenge geared towards sustainable building practices and student-led innovation.
WEST (Women in Engineering, Science and Technology) is a student-led group at UVic that partners with industry professionals and academia to engage female-identifying students in real-world, industry-driven design projects, creating opportunities for them to gain technical and hands-on skills.
As a representation of a small high-performance sustainable building, students needed to design and build a prototype enclosed structure that maintains the most stable indoor air temperature possible, using passive building design strategies. Once the prototypes were built, the final structures were exposed to real outdoor weather conditions for five days with a temperature monitoring probe and data recording to evaluate their performance.
The Assignment
Each team, made up of three or four 1st-4th year university students, were given this problem statement:
The focus of the project will be to demonstrate how implementation of a passive building design can create spaces that are comfortable and safe for occupants, while minimizing the requirement for external inputs of energy or “active” systems to maintain comfort. Your challenge is as follows:
As a representation of a small high-performance sustainable building, design and build a prototype enclosed structure that maintains the most stable indoor air temperature possible, using passive building design strategies.
To solve this challenge, you and your team will design and build a prototype enclosed structure that meets the following constraints:
- Minimum interior volume of 0.22m3
- Must include a “window” area of 0.20m2
- No use of permanent/wired power
- No use of thermal resistance heating or combustion
- No use of toxic materials
All labour and hands-on work must be performed by students only.
The final structures were exposed to real outdoor weather conditions for five days with a temperature monitoring probe and data recording to evaluate its performance.
As part of the challenge oriented toward teaching contract administration, additional rules were provided in writing, and each team was provided the opportunity and process to formally request interpretations or exemptions. A standardized contact method and deadline was be provided, and responses to requests for information were be disseminated to all teams.
Once the testing was complete, students held a Project Showcase, where the 6 student groups presented their research, designs (many showing multiple iterations), building process, and final results. Each team also had their projects displayed in the event space for everyone to see up close.
