Building as an Exhibit: Merging Building Monitoring and Controls with Learning
Jim Jones, Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic and State University (Virginia Tech)
Schools and learning environments are typically designed as passive rather than active vessels for learning. Classrooms are often viewed as shells to contain learning activities rather than as active participants in the learning experience. Two recently designed projects, the Environmental Learning Center in Franklin County, Virginia, and the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum in Winchester, Virginia, challenge this view. These two projects are designed with advanced building systems that promote energy conservation and environmental integration. Systems such as photovoltaics, wind turbines, ground-coupled heat pumps, and green roofs are designed to become exhibits for environmentally responsive design and operation of buildings. The performance of these building systems will be monitored and controlled, and data will be accessible to students and visitors to promote an understanding of the role buildings play in issues of sustainability. This presentation will discuss the issues involved with merging building monitoring and controls with the learning experience.
Biography:
Jim Jones, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech. Dr. Jones holds a Master of Architecture and Ph.D. from the College of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Michigan. In addition to providing graduate level instruction in the areas of environmental building systems, resource conservation, and sustainable design and systems integration, Dr. Jones has over 15 years of research experience using computer simulation, experimental analysis techniques and field monitoring of subjects related to resource conservation, indoor environmental quality, environmental sensing and monitoring, whole building performance assessment, and systems performance assessment. He was the principal designer and developer of the Indoor Environmental Quality Laboratory at North Carolina A&T State University as well as the Wall Assembly Thermal Test System at the Building Technology Laboratory at the University of Michigan. He has published over 40 technical papers related to the subjects concerned with building performance and systems-occupant interactions. In addition to degrees in architecture, he holds a minor in applied statistics.
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