Aletheia Ida

This work explores responsive hydrophilic polymers for convergent functions of climate control with architectural material systems. In buildings, the transition across exterior and interior space occurs through the envelope, which is an enclosure system that mediates heat, light, air and moisture transfer functions. Conventional building envelopes...

Water interactions with building materials are addressed for major material groups including natural materials, non-technical ceramics, technical ceramics, metals, polymers, elastomers, and foams. Water quantities and qualities are identified across the life-cycle stages of building materials from sourcing and extraction, manufacturing, constructio...

One of the challenges that architects and designers are confronted with in contemporary contexts is the need to address an ethical responsibility towards the health of the environment through understanding the energetic processes embedded in materials and their compositions. A scientific explanation of material fundamentals, including chemistry, ph...

This research introduces a novel lyophilized hydrogel for double-skin envelope (DSE) integration as a dynamic louver system to provide dehumidification of moisture, daylighting modulation, and recuperation of water condensate. The work links empirical experiments for thermal, optical, and sorption properties of the hygrothermal materials alongside...

A radiatively cooled translucent building skin is developed for desert climates, constructed out of pockets of high heat-capacity liquids. The liquids are contained by a wavelength-selective membrane enclosure, which is transmissive in the infrared range of electromagnetic radiation but reflective in the shortwave range, and therefore prevents over...

A roof aperture lined with hydrogel membrane is proposed for combined evaporative and radiative cooling in the desert climate. In order to determine the design, materials and predicted performance of this device, several types of digital simulations and physical experiments were performed. The proposed full-scale prototype, planned to be built and...

This Special Issue on Healing Spaces includes eight articles consisting of studies at the interface between design and health. The articles address some of the latest findings using state-of-the-art technologies, important outcomes for human health and wellbeing, and suggest exciting directions for the future of this research field.

There exist numerous advantages of using building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology, including efficient use of solar energy, control of indoor illumination, and reduced energy use for cooling/heating. Current pioneer BIPV technologies have not been fully deployed due to lack of standardization, low adaptability, and moderate efficiency. He...

The Biorhythmic Evaporative-cooling Nano-TeCH (BENCH) system is conceived as a novel building skin for architectural enclosures responsive to human interactions for thermal comfort in hot-arid climate conditions. The membrane system concurrently integrates natural ventilation cooling and modulations in daylighting transmission for inhabitant wellbe...

A unique paradox exists between the early and modern architectural and mechanical means of dealing with humidity in and around buildings. Traditional architectural conditions of biopolymeric thatch dwellings accommodated human thermal comfort through dehumidification by the materials employed at the building envelope. Original mechanical developmen...

A design framework for integrating windcatcher functions within the contemporary hot-arid urban Iranian context of Tehran responds to two major changes impacting their current utilization: 1) urban densification resulting in modified access to adequate airflows, and 2) sociocultural shifts towards dependencies on modern mechanical air-conditioning...

Efficacious resource harvesting constitutes new modes of conceptualizing the interactions of buildings with surrounding environmental conditions. The internal logic of a biotechnical paradigm in architectural design allows for the potential of fluid exchanges between medium and material to be realized with correlated metabolism. Such concepts avert...

Human health and energy problems associated with the lack of control of sunlight in contemporary buildings have necessitated research into dynamic windows for energy efficient buildings. Existing window technologies have made moderate progress towards greater energy performance for facades but remain limited in their response to dynamic solar condi...