Browsing by Author "Gowda, Vidya"

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    Credibility of a Person-Centered Design Decision-making Prototype: Spaces for Older Persons with Vision Loss
    Gowda, Vidya (Virginia Tech, 2016-06-29)
    Decline in both visual acuity and visual performance is a fact of life for older people and their increasing share of the population requires that buildings be designed with their visual needs in mind. As their field of vision decreases, people find it harder to identify an objects location, distance, and orientation. Elderly people with vision impairments usually find it harder to perform daily activities such as navigation through indoor spaces. Functional vision can be improved by modifying the design of spaces, for example, with better lighting. However, architects typically do not know how to take the needs of the visually impaired into account in their design process, or simply do not think of doing so. The researcher designed and feasibility-tested a prototype person-centered tool to help architects judge how appropriate a designed space will be for visually impaired people. The study was conducted as a qualitative mixed-methodology research analysis. The researcher used knowledge from literature interpretation to rationalize the development of a person-centered prototype. The researcher immersed design PhD students and vision science experts to inform the prototyping process. Along with an expert group of design and vision science professionals, the researcher beta-tested the prototype during a mock design-process scenario. The researcher also selected a small group of industry experts to participate in open-ended interviews on post-use demonstrations to qualitatively triangulate the findings on the prototypes usability. The study summarizes the feasibility including the challenges of using the prototype for professional purposes and suggests improvement.
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    Performance Assessment of Alternative Composite Earth Wall Panels
    Gowda, Vidya (Virginia Tech, 2008-09-08)
    The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air conditioning Engineers suggests that the building sector represents over 30 percent of our national energy consumption (Parsons, R., 2001). Embodied energy in components of building construction can represent as much as five to ten years of operating energy. Building materials such as concrete, steel and glass require significant amounts of energy for production, and therefore are important when calculating embodied energy in buildings (Keable, 2007; Rypkema, 2007). Because of the relatively large area and volume of related components, the building enclosure system represents a major factor when calculating embodied energy. Alternative materials could be incorporated by adapting traditional and vernacular building approaches to today's standards, for example, compressing soil blocks for use as external walls in buildings that can be applicable to almost any climate including rainforests and cold climates. As an alternative to high-embodied energy materials used for enclosure systems, compacted earth-based enclosure systems may be a viable option, particularly if developed and applied as a pre-manufactured modular system. This study seeks to both quantitatively and qualitatively explore the potential development of earth-based building curtain wall systems. Using modified ASTM test protocols for building enclosure systems and components, alternative earth-based panels were compared. The results suggest that earth-based panels may be a viable option for curtain wall systems but its performance is highly dependent on the composition of the panels. The results of the tests are summarized.