MSE 226: Final Report: Net Zero Project
G.Garcia, A. Higa, Z. Jacobson, P. Matheu, and R. Vega
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Kyle Konis is a PhD student at UC Berkely working with the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Windows and Daylighting Group and working as an architect on the Thesen home project. Before coming to Berkeley he worked for several years as an architect in the US and UK on innovative green buildings with the firms Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and Sir Michael Hopkins and Partners. Kyle holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and an M.Arch from Yale University. His research involves the use of High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography and post occupancy surveys to evaluate the quality of the indoor environment in buildings.
“I am participating in this project to learn how available technologies can be applied with good design and user behavior to produce a new form of American vernacular housing. I am hoping to learn more about the role that design plays in the realm of energy. Is good design any use? And to what extent can innovation at the scale of an individual house work to create changes at the neighborhood scale?”
Brian Coffey is a PhD student in Architecture (Building Science) at UC Berkeley, with minors in Operations Research and Controls (Mech Eng), and is a graduate student researcher in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is working as an architect on this project. He studied liberal arts and mechanical engineering at McMaster University and the University of Victoria (both in Canada), before completing a masters in building engineering at Concordia University in Montreal. His research work is primarily devoted to the development and use of building simulation tools, and to algorithm and tool development for design and control optimization.
Brian’s primary role in this project will be to work with the architect to reduce the building’s heating, cooling and lighting requirements, and consult on the design of very low energy heating and cooling systems.
Kate Reimer is overseeing the deconstruction process to make sure that materials from the current house are reused in a sustainable manner. She graduated from UC Berkeley in May ‘08. She majored in Economics and completed minors in Energy & Resources Group and City Planning. While an undergraduate, Kate facilitated the Joy of Garbage De-Cal for three semesters, wrote her honors thesis in Economics on “Rural-Urban Migration in Cuba’s Special Period,” and worked at the Transportation Sustainability Research Center. Since graduating, she has attended The Sustainable Energy Fellowship at Duke University and the Eben Tisdale Public Policy Fellowship in Washington, DC. She now works full-time at PG&E in Energy Procurement. Her hobbies include baking, swimming, bicycling, visiting zoos, and painting.
“I volunteered to lead Deconstruction because of my experience facilitating the Joy of Garbage De-Cal (see bio). Waste management is an environmentally critical and often unnoticed aspect of construction. I intend to reuse as many parts of the original house as possible and recycle all remaining parts. With the innovation of a creative contractor, I hope to complete this project under-budget, and in the “greenest” manner possible. My hypothesis is that reuse and recycling will make this project more cost-effective and environmentally sound than conventional decontruction techniques; it should serve as a practical precedent for “green” deconstruction.”
Lindsay Baker is a graduate student in the UC Berkeley Department of Architecture, focusing in Building Science. She received her BA in Environmental Studies from Oberlin College, where she focused her studies on Ecological Design and Architectural History. She has worked for the Southface Energy Institute in Atlanta, the Chattanooga Planning and Design Studio, the Energy Coordinating Agency in Philadelphia, and most recently with the US Green Building Council. At the USGBC, she coordinated the development of LEED rating systems and standards procedures, as well as developing the LEED for Schools program. Lindsay is currently working on occupant surveying as a method for measuring building performance, focusing on occupant comfort in K-12 educational buildings. She also does research in low-energy cooling techniques and controllability of classroom environments, within the Center for the Built Environment at Berkeley.
Philip Narodick is a masters student at Stanford studying energy markets in the Management Sciene and Engineering department. He is working on the Thesen Home project as webmaster, resident water boy, and official backyard-chicken-potential researcher. Phil majored in International Relations during his undergraduate career also at Stanford and graduated with honors after completing a thesis on Brazilian biofuels and energy cooperation.
Through this project, he hopes to gain a better understanding of the issues present in the construction of extremely energy efficient buildings, understand barriers to sustainable project in Palo Alto and Northern California, and get a head start on research for his own zero energy home to be build circa January, 2019.
