smart sustainability book 12232011 hq

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with the support of

SmartSustainability

2010The first international symposium

on best practices in sustainable innovation

and clean technologies

MIT Mobile Experience Lab Publishing


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Smart Sustainability 2010Best Practices in Sustainable Innovation

and Clean Technologies


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Copyright 2010 by Mobile Experience Lab

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

First printing 2011.

ISBN-13: 9780982114438

ISBN-10: 0982114435

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

MIT Mobile Experience Lab Publishing

http://mobile.mit.edu/research/1st-annual-smart-sustainability-symposium

/1st-annual-smart-sustainability-symposium

www.mobile.mit.edu

Book designed by Pelin Arslan

Edited by Michelle Dalton


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IntroductionSmart Sustainability Symposium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Italian Commission Trade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9

Chapter 1. Global TrendsReinventing the Automobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-20

Smart and Connected Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-24ICT-Based Urban Planning Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-27

H2flOw Design for Increased Awareness of Smart Water Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-34

Chapter 2. The Sustainable Connected HomeEnergy Mobility Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-39

Lighting: How the Electrochromic Faade Influences the Internal Lighting of the

Sustainable Connected Home. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40-47

Designing a Robust Energy Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48-51

Chapter 3. Building and FabricationThe Three Autonomous Architectures of the Sustainable Connected Home . . . . . . . . 53-69

MAI-IVALSA Modular House Meets MIT-Mobile Experience Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70-75

Chapter 4. Energy SustainabilityFBKREET Energy Vision and the Positive Energy Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77-83

Toward Zero Energy Buildings: Optimized for Energy Use and Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84-89

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

// Index


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Smart Sustainability Symposium

The international symposium, Smart Sustainability 2010 was promoted

by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, the Italian Trade

Commission in New York, and the MIT Mobile Experience Laboratory. Theevent was organized at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge,

MA, inspired by the notion of sustainability as developed by the United

Nations World Summit in New York City in 2005. Among the declarations

that the summit proclaimed was a recognition of the serious challenge

posed by climate change and a commitment to take action through the UN

Framework Convention on Climate Change. The definition of sustainability

has expanded embracing three requirements: that natural capital remainsintact, defined as Environmental Sustainability, that development is financially

feasible, defined as Economic Sustainability, and that the societal cohesion

is maintained, defined as Social Sustainability. The three-pillar model places

equal importance on environmental, social and economic considerations. By

bringing together experts and scientists from different fields, the symposium

provided a platform to discuss future opportunities for the creative use of

information and communication technologies, as well as sustainable energy

systems and sustainable architecture, with the aim of identifying new ways

to improve the quality of interactions among people, architectural space and

local environment.

// Introduction


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Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea

Italian Trade Commission

The Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, and in particular

the Department for Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Energy,

together with the Italian Trade Commission, is pleased to be part of this

important publication, which paves the way for exploring best practices in

Sustainable Innovation and Clean Technologies.

The Department for Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Energy

at the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea promotes the

protection of the environment thru the implementation of projects aimed at

developing new technologies with high environmental efficiency, fostering

collaborative initiatives around the world. The Italian Trade Commission

is the official trade development and promotional agency for the Italian

Government. Its mission is to support the internationalization of Italian firms

and their consolidation in foreign markets. Together, the two aim to promote

the use of Italian technologies and the involvement of Italian companies by

encouraging scientific and commercial collaboration, and the exchange of

best practices and know-how.

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9

Our joint collaboration with MIT Mobile Experience Lab began in 2010 with

the creation of Green Link, a networking platform aimed at exploring and

promoting the use of green technologies and sustainable best practices via

collaborative synergies between US and Italian companies, universities, andresearch centers to further develop advanced technologies for innovative

energy systems.

The positive and necessary role of public-private partnerships for economic

growth and environmental protection is becoming ever more evident and

accepted; this is particularly relevant when addressing urban sprawl and

the integration of environmental strategies thru technology innovation and

interaction between space and people.

The urban environment as a critical component of the overall global

environment, draws attention to climate change phenomena, and as we

attempt to move forward we must focus on mitigation and adaptation

solutions not in the limited sense of a reaction to a problem beyond our

control, but rather as an evolutionary process that marries science and art.

Science in the sense of technological advances as demonstrated by recent

breakthroughs in energy innovation and Art in the sense of economic

prosperity, environmental policy making, fiscal market mechanisms,

social progress and interactions between individuals, businesses and the

environment.

It is with this expectation that we praise the work of MIT Mobile Experience

Lab that has so diligently and vividly captured in this one volume the

contributions of so many of experts.

Corrado Clini

Director General

Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea

Aniello Musella

Executive Director

for the USA Italian Trade Commission


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1// Global Trends


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Reinventing the Automobile

by Ryan Chin, MIT Media Lab Smart Cities

The two biggest consumers of energy in urban areas are transportation and

buildings. In 2007, the United Nations estimated that 60% of the population

would be living in urban areas during the 21st century and would control more

than 80% of the wealth. They would presumably also own, drive, or operate

gasoline-consuming vehicles. Currently, as much as 40% of gasoline used by

automobiles is expended while drivers look for parking spaces in congested

urban areas, adding to already great urban energy demands. Transportationproblems are rampant in cities. Personal vehicles are a major source of

pollution and carbon emissions and contribute to growing congestion and

noise pollution. Public transport does not cover the entire city, remains

inconvenient, and does not address the first milelast mile problem of mass

transit. In Taiwan, for example, there are 5.7 million cars (averaging 4 people

per trip) and 13.6 million motorcycles and scooters (averaging 2 people per

trip and accounting for 11% of the air pollution generated).

Vehicle Sharing

Vehicle sharing of all types is becoming more commonplace but the concept

has not yet been fully embraced. In Paris, for example, 30,000 bicycles are

rented daily. As of 2008, an additional 80 cities worldwide now offer bicycle

sharing. The United States has plans for several cities to implement bicycle

sharing, but work on those projects remains ongoing. The models areenvironmentally friendly and offer schemes similar to those for car rentals: a

bicycle can be picked up from the closest rental rack and returned elsewhere.

The one-way rental scheme is convenient and flexible, and complements the

public transit model, while solving the first milelast mile problem. Two-

way rental schemes require the return of the vehicle to the pick-up origin

(this is useful for niche markets such as running errands); however, one-way

rental schemes can dramatically affect how cities operate on an urban scale.

Automobile sharing services are also becoming more convenient, with more

than 600 cities worldwide offering some sort of car-sharing service. Currently,

5,000 automobiles in the United States are used in car-sharing programs.

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Mobility-on-Demand

Mobility-on-Demand (MoD) Systems is the MIT Media Labs newest design

solution. It involves having a fleet of lightweight electric vehicles (scooters)

scattered throughout a city at charging stations, where users can easily pick

up a vehicle from one location and drop it off at another.

For this program to succeed, the vehicles require batteries that can be rapidly

charged at stations that have been integrated into a citys smart grid. Global

Positioning System (GPS) receivers will allow users to locate the vehicles

and navigate them to available charging stations. Battery management is

essential to accommodate large peak loads because electrical demands

may well overburden existing electric grids. A combination of rapid and slow

charging battery systems will be an essential part of such a program. The

core technology built for MITs three MoD vehicles involves in-wheel electric

motors (Figure 1).

Each wheel has an electric motor, integrated with suspension, steering, and

braking, all inside what is called the Robot Wheel, an integral, self-contained

module. Rather than placing the motor, suspension, steering, and braking

systems throughout the platform of the vehicle, as in current vehicle design,

these integral parts are contained within its four cornersthe wheels.

Figure 1. In-wheel electric motors are the core technology

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The Robot Wheel permits a variety of different vehicle configurations, as

it frees up the interior space of the vehicle. In essence, the wheel can be

likened to a USB stick, an essential commodity product, with the vehicle

taking the role of the finished element. By using the Robot Wheel, vehiclescan be designed so that each wheel acts independently, controlled off one

central processing unit.

CityCar

The CityCar is a two-passenger electric vehicle with in-wheel motors. One

unique feature of this vehicle is its ability to turn on its own axis. Each

wheel can turn approximately 50 degrees, thus enabling zero-radius turns.

The CityCar can collapse and fold to about 40% of its footprint (Figure 2).

When folded, three CityCars are able to fit into one traditional parking space.

Because the CityCar can fit within the width of a parking space, a citys

streetscape can be altered to accommodate significantly more vehicles,

making better use of the space.

Figure 2. The CityCar, fully expanded mode and collapsed.

The CityCar has been designed so that entry and exit is through the front of

the vehicle. Reconfiguring the design of the car and entry and exit allows

drivers to step out safely onto the street or sidewalk and increase pedestrian

and bicycle safety (as this design will eliminate having to open doors out onto

the street). Figure 2 also provides weight and size comparisons of the CityCar

versus traditional cars. The prototype CityCar will weigh approximately 1,000

pounds. By comparison, a conventional 4-door sedan can weigh 3,500

pounds or more.

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The CityCar is viable both for old-world cities (such as those in Europe that

must decrease the amount of pollution cars generate) and for cities where

car ownership is onerous (such as Hong Kong, where automobile costs are

roughly three times that of the United States).

In congested cities, pick-up and drop-off points can become social gathering

places, with the potential to increase business for shops in the immediate

vicinity. The MoD systems can function as networks, where the drop-off points

are hot spots for transportation activity and energizers for neighborhoods.

For example, a convenience store or coffee shop with a charging station out

front could see an increase in the flow of foot traffic.

CityCar networks can be developed relatively quickly, unlike traditional train

stations, which might require a decade or more to build. Figure 3 shows how

the concept would fit into a city such as Singapore, where public transit is

used by a majority of residents, but where first milelast mile remains a

challenge.

Figure 3. Artists rendering of how the CityCar concept can be integrated into

a cityscape.

The next phase of this project will be commercialization. MIT has partnered

with a Media Lab sponsor to make the CityCar commercially available within

3 years. The two groups will have a fully functional prototype by the summer

of 2011 and will immediately build an additional 20 units for demonstration

and testing.

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Nearly four folded CityCars can fit in one traditional parking space (Figure

4), changing the entire urban landscape, particularly for on-street parking. A

traditional parking lot typically accommodates 100 vehicles on the bottom

and 100 vehicles on the top. The CityCar can reduce that footprint by almostfour to one. If the vehicles become shared-use instead of single-owned and

single-used, an aisle will no longer be necessary. In a shared-use scenario,

the parking structure would function almost like a Pez dispenser. When a car

is required, the next car in the queue will be pulled into use. By re-thinking

the parking structure itself, developers can conserve space and save money.

Figure 4. Compared with traditional automobiles, the CityCar has a much

smaller parking footprint.

RoboScooter

MIT, Sanyang Motors (SYM), and Industrial Technology Research Institute of

Taiwan (ITRI) have collaborated in the design of a single-passenger vehicle

that uses a scaled-down version of in-wheel motors (Figure 5). This vehicle,

when folded, can fit into the closet of a small apartment. In some cities where

parking is challenging, further compacting an already small vehicle could

prove invaluable. The RoboScooter has a removable battery pack, which canbe recharged at a users home or swapped at battery vending machines.

The RoboScooter weighs approximately 45 kg but has about one-tenth the

number of parts of a traditional scooter.

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Figure 5. The fully expanded RoboScooter and a folded vehicle.

GreenWheel

GreenWheel, developed by the MIT Media Lab Smart Cities, is a modular,

in-wheel electric motor that transforms any pedal-powered bicycle into an

electrically assisted hybrid bicycle (otherwise known as the E-bike). A joint

workshop between the MIT Mobile Experience Lab and the Smart Cities

Group has encouraged further innovation. GreenWheels was combined with

mobile phone and sensors.1 The joint effort has encouraged exploration of

a variety of topics, including social navigation, distributed data sensing,

healthcare, optimization of bike-sharing racks, peer-to-peer freight, urban

races, and civic engagement.

The GreenWheel Smart Bicycle is an electric-assist bicycle: the motor and

battery are integrated inside the hub space of the wheel, enabling electric

power to be provided to the rear wheel whenever the rider desires. A pressure

sensor embedded in the pedals activates the rear motor. Thus, when the rider

exerts force during pedaling, the GreenWheel provides power to a level set

by the rider. In turn, the rider can climb hills more efficiently and travel longer

distances. Using a wireless throttle, the rider can release energy stored in the

generator while braking to support pedaling during more difficult stretches.

Creating bikes that can recycle their own energy and even make small

contributions to the grid provides numerous opportunities.

1 GreenWheel Scenarios, accessed March 12, 2011. http://mobile.mit/edu/greenwheel/scenarios

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The GreenWheel project is not limited to power microgeneration. Its

combination of software and electronics creates a new platform for

sustainable mobility, including having a battery that should extend for 30 km.

Figures 6 and 7 illustrate the details and specifications of the technology.

Figure 6. A cut-away detail of the GreenWheel technology used in the

GreenWheel Smart Bicycle.

Figure 7. Performance specifications for the GreenWheel.

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The GreenWheel uses a brushless DC motor; thus, only the outer casing

rotates. Because there is no large rotational mass, as users slow the bicycle

down, a reduced amount of energy is required compared with that required

of vehicles with large engines. When the engine is engaged, the rider cancontinue pedaling, helping the battery achieve its 30 km range/charge. The

motor and gearbox are configured to provide enough torque and power

to overcome a 15-degree incline. The battery has been designed to quick

charge as well (estimates predict 20 to 25 minutes to fully charge). The top

speed is 20 miles per hour (30 km/hr).

The MIT Mobile Experience Lab has also developed a mobile application

for the GreenWheel bicycle that calculates performance, rider energy

consumption, and environmental conditions while traveling. The application

is designed to be mounted on the bicycles handlebars and provides a

number of modes that aid the rider. It has been designed to minimize the

complexity of the information and decrease the risk of accident associated

with unnecessary distractions. The following issues have been addressed:

Performance

This mode allows the rider to compare the speed and effort being expended

with the power assist that is created. The rider also can monitor the length of

time for a trip and the distance traveled in real time.

Health Monitoring

This mode provides the total calories burned during the ride as well as

the current calories (kcal) per minute. To burn more calories, the rider can

optimize performance by adjusting the GreenWheels assist level.

GreenWheel Status

This mode shows the current status of the GreenWheel itself. In addition to

showing the distance traveled, it shows how much farther the rider can go

using the power assist.

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Environment

This mode shows riders how they are helping the environment and their

wallet by calculating what an equivalent trip would cost by car. The monetary

cost of fuel is shown as well as the environmental impact in grams of CO2.

The rider can set the characteristics of the vehicle in the preferences.2 When

the production of MoD systems is fully implemented, the cumulative battery

storage that can be provided from the 4,000 vehicles becomes part of an

operator network. In a city such as Boston (where approximately 300,000

private vehicles exist), the MoD vehicle fleet represents just over 1% of the

total.

These vehicles could be charged overnight, when electricity use is lower. In

the daytime, the MoD vehicles could absorb energy from solar, wind, or any

other kind of intermittent renewable power. Simultaneously, these vehicles

can return power back to the grid. Vehicle-to-grid power return is now in

experimental form in several locations. Questions being addressed include

how a large fleet of vehicles can act as additional energy storage for the

utility grid and whether the vehicle can be combined into a mobility deviceand an energy device to reduce the need for backup power plants (spinning

reserves) in cities. Challenges such as pricing structures, safety issues (such

as how to incorporate the use of baby seats), remain. MIT is in the early

stages of designing a four-passenger vehicle and is considering developing

a six-passenger minivan that would incorporate the concepts of MoD.

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2 GreenWheel Scenarios, accessed March 12, 2011. http://mobile.mit/edu/greenwheel


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Smart and Connected Communities

Notes based on the presentation made by Relina Bulchandani, Global Lead Connected Real

Estate, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG)

Using advanced technology and design practices, the Mobile Experience

Lab is devising sustainable solutions for transportation and real estate

development. Through prototypes and proofs of concept, the Connected

Urban Development project can help mayors around the world promote

sustainable policies and practices as they move toward an integrated vision

of the city of the future. The Mobile Experience Lab and Cisco InternetBusiness Solutions Group (IBSG) envision four areas of opportunity: First,

people will be able to move around and interact with their city through

citizen engagement points, a seamless integration of physical and virtual

environments, through ad-hoc car and bike sharing. Second, the smart city

will embrace the energy contributions of its citizens by taking advantage of

opportunities for microgeneration, such as regenerative brakes on bicycles,

or the use of piezoelectric generators on dance floors. Third, existingbuildings will be retrofitted to be sustainable, configurable, and flexible to

allow the hyper-efficient use of energy and space. Finally, cities and citizens

will be able to collaborate on the efficient use of resources by using new

technologies such as open-source eco-maps that monitor land use and

environmental effects (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Smart+Connected Communities.

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Compared with agricultural regions, cities use significantly more energy.

According to an IBSG study, within 20 years, a city of 5 million people

networked with information and communications technologies can increase

city revenues by $15 billion, increase GDP growth by about 9.5%, createapproximately 375,000 new jobs, and become more energy efficient, while

consuming 30% less energy than a city without such a network (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Interconnecting information services and building services.

Intelligent Buildings

IBSG is devising intelligent buildings, where information technology and

building management can be merged by inputting data onto an IP network.

For example, floor monitors can automatically turn lights off if no people are

on a floor at a given time. IBSG implemented this concept in Bangalore, India,

at its globalization campus. The company took 9,000 points and converged

them over the IP network. By monitoring and managing their own energy

usage, people are becoming more conscientious about their energy choices.

The i-Waterfront

IBSG is now working on revitalizing the Toronto, Canada, waterfront. Currently

the largest urban renewal project in North America, the area encompasses

about 800 hectares of land.

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City planners are working with building developers to ensure that sustainability

features are incorporated into the vision. A key component for the Toronto

project is i-Waterfront Toronto, which combines a physical environment

that enables community members to congregate and develop their ownapplications over a base platform. The project, based on an operational

prototype in Vsters, Sweden, links the online world to the offline world.

Smart Work Centers

As part of the Clinton Global Initiative, IBSG and MIT collaborated on Smart

Work Centers. In Amsterdam, for example, the amount of time and energy

people used to commute to work was unacceptable. Smart Work Centers

reduce carbon footprints by reducing the amount of traffic and emissions

by allowing people to shorten their commutes. Workplace costs are also

decreased, and the concept facilitates an environment for communities,

employers, and employees. The traditional office has been disrupted with

this concept. Technology is, in essence, creating another subgroup of people

who tend to congregate at the same work centers, even if they are not co-

workers. In Korea, there are now 500 national smart work centers planned aspart of the current governments Green Growth Committee of the Presidential

House.

IBSG and MIT are further collaborating on an Urban EcoMap, where an

individual can determine transportation options, waste data, and energy

costs for those options, by zip code. The Urban EcoMap is an interactive

decision space that empowers individual citizens to make informeddecisions about their daily lives, along with how to participate in the vitality

of their communities. [The projects] aim to build awareness, foster a sense of

community, and provide actions for citizens to take to enable the reduction

of greenhouse gas emissions in cities. Although both Amsterdam and San

Francisco have approximately the same number of residents, Amsterdam

produces less than half the residential CO2 emissions per capita than San

Francisco does (Figure 3). In San Francisco, transportation is responsible

for 78.1% of residential CO2 emissions; however, in Amsterdam, energy

consumption is the culprit, accounting for 63.7% of emissions.

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25global trends

ICT-Based Urban Planning Initiatives: Facilitators ofMovement, Communication, and Opportunity

Abby Spinak, MIT Mobile Experience Lab

Although information and communication technologies (ICT) might help build

a more sustainable world, social connectivity and environmental sustainability

must be a primary concern when implementing these technologies.

Discussions of future communities should emphasize residents continued

access to information and opportunities, greater civic engagement, and

more efficient coordination of local resources for all residents (Figure 1).Integrating ICT into the design of future communities can help achieve those

goals, as outlined below.

Figure 1. Information and communication technologies and socially

sustainable cities.

There are several key areas in which ICT should be used to design socially

sustainable cities, including improved public information and public

Internet access, dependable transportation, increased opportunities for

public engagement, flexible work and commuting options, and mixed-use

neighborhoods that encourage sustainability.


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Public Information and Internet Access

In urban areas, public services can be improved through widespread public

Internet access. For residents without access to smart phones or other

Internet-enabled mobile devices, publicly accessible Internet terminals

(woven into public transportation [similar to the IBSG/San Francisco

Connected Bus initiative] or into other public spaces such as libraries or

government buildings) can make a city more accessible for a wider variety of

residents. Where Internet connectivity is not possible or feasible, cities have

a responsibility to their residents to make services responsive to a variety

of communications technologies to improve accessibility and dependability.

Cities can, for example, take advantage of the widespread use of mobile

phones (non-smart phones) by setting up systems that use text messaging to

distribute information about public transit schedules or that allow residents

to report a problem with public amenities in real time.

Flexible, Affordable, and Dependable Transportation

A more accessible city is a more equitable, healthy, and vibrant city. Recent

demand-based multimodal transit models that rely on ICT promise to make

public transportation as convenient as, and more pleasant than, private

automobiles. These models enhance urban access by connecting poorly

served geographic areas of variable density into a metropolitan network and

by extending the functionalities of more personalized transit to residents

without their own transportation. Additionally, such transit models have been

shown to strengthen neighborhoods by increasing street traffic and local

business demand. This model of public transportation is exemplified by such

initiatives as:

1. Demand Responsive Transit (DRT) systemsA user-oriented form of

public transport characterized by flexible routing and scheduling of small

to medium vehicles operating in shared-ride mode between pick-up and

drop-off locations according to passengers needs3;

2. Employee shuttlesSimilar to DRT systems, these shuttle services offer

commuting options to employees in geographically spread-out communities.By including onboard Wi-Fi or other services, these shuttles make commuting

a productive and pleasant experience and help employees achieve a better

work/life balance. In addition to the more traditional single-company

3 European Commission, ManagEnergy, 2011, accessed March 13, 2011,

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27global trends

shuttles, some shuttle services are starting to serve business districts, where

many companies have employees with similar residential distributions; and

3. Personal transit options, such as car-sharing or bike-sharing programs

These shared-use small vehicles reduce the need for private personal vehicles,

while providing the flexible capabilities of a personal vehicle accessible on an

as-needed basis.

Opportunities for Public Engagement

Public participation in community planning, city service provision, and local

cultural development can dramatically increase the effectiveness of public

programs and create more vibrant, inclusive communities. New technologicaltools that connect citizens and collect or disseminate information make

participation in local government or citizen group activities more convenient,

accessible, and easy to use. Such tools can facilitate civic participation.

Examples of recent ICT-enabled community participation initiatives include

mobilizing online communities to reward good business practices, creating

Web sites to keep track of public infrastructure problems, and using public

art projects that employ digital markers in real space to stimulate public

interest in places or events and to teach public history.

Flexible Work and Commuting Options

Non-productive commuting time negatively impacts many quality-of-

life indicators, from individual health to civic engagement. In addition to

increasing flexible work arrangements, ICT can connect those within a

community by providing them with personalized transportation options

to better integrate work and life demands. These commuting options canenhance both professional and personal productivity for riders.

Mixed-Use Neighborhoods

Mixed-use neighborhoods stereotypically score high on sustainability

measures and can become more than just a way of allocating space

for houses and work places. Sustainability initiatives that combine new

technologies with social ends make possible fluid lifestyles that contribute to

vibrant communities. Well-designed ICT applications blur spatial boundaries,

allowing people to work, play, participate, and organize from different

locations in ways that are accessible and meaningful for each individual.


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28

H2flOw Design for Increased Awareness of

Smart Water Use

Liselott Brunnberg, PhD, MIT Mobile Experience Lab

The term smart sustainability implies an already educated and socially

aware citizen. The H2flOw project aims to help communities develop

awareness and educate their youth population about sustainable water use

and, by extension, sustainable living.

Clean water is essential to sustain life on earth. This resource must be

protected and made accessible to all, but factors such as melting glaciers,

shifting rainfall patterns, pollution, and privatization contribute to fresh

water depletion and misuse of water resources. Coupled with a constant

population growth, providing sufficient, clean water is likely to remain one

of the greatest challenges of the 21st century4 . Modern lifestyles contribute

to polluted water resources, increased global warming, and large quantities

of water consumption. Consequently, an urgent need exists for communities

to address the issue and to make citizens aware of their daily use of water.

The H2flOw project has undertaken the challenge by engaging the attention

of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15. H2flOw embraces an explorative

and place-based learning approach, meaning that the students discover

and explore the topic in their own local environments, such as their school,

neighborhood, community, and city. By establishing a connection between

sustainable issues and the immediate local context, the project will inspire

young people to reflect on their everyday choices about water consumption

and to foster community engagement. Through a combination of Web, mobile

applications, and constructible, tangible interfaces, the project envisions

a technological ecosystem as a resource for education and community

awareness and sharing.

H2flOw is a collaboration between the MIT Mobile Experience Lab and

FBK/Science Museum in Trento, Italy. Although the project is housed at the

Science Museum, it incorporates schools, home environments, and the city

of Trento. Two different designs are currently being developed as part of the

projects goals.

4 World Water Assessment Programme, 2009, 3rd UN World Water Development Report: Water in a Changing

World, accessed March 13, 2011,


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29global trends

1. CUPa do-it-yourself probe to increase awareness of water consumption

in the home.

In this hands-on activity, participants engage in a do-it-yourself construction

session, where they will build their own probe to measure the quantity

of water consumed from faucets in their residences, e.g., at the bathtub,

shower, garden tap or kitchen sink (Figure 1). Participating teenagers will

then have the resources necessary to explore, investigate, or measure water

consumption. Awareness by the teenager will lead to awareness among

other household residents, who will become more conscious of their water

consumption, from brushing teeth to showering.

Figure 1. Designing a water flow meter.

Given the age of the participants, the probe is designed with inexpensive

materials and sensors, and is something that could easily be built by a

teenager. A paper cup and a cheap microprocessor, simple sensors, and LEDs

comprise the probe; a thermometer is used to indicate water temperature.

The probe must first be calibrated by holding it under the faucet until the

cup is filled to calculate water flow. A Piezo transducer microphone attached

to the probe will capture the sound of the water flow. The microphone will

then be attached to the water pipe. A microprocessor interprets the sound

and, using the already calculated water flow value, can assess the amount of

water consumption.


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Lights and ambient sounds function as feedback indicators, giving participants

a real-time awareness of consumed water to keep the teenager involved

and engaged in the process. The ambient sound alters with variations in

the temperature and amount of consumed water. The metaphor of a 10-literbucket is used so that project participants can visualize quantity. This bucket

simulates an environment without a water infrastructure and communicates

how often participants would have to visit a well to maintain their lifestyles. A

vertical row of 10 LEDs on the cup simulates the buckets rising water levels,

with one LED representing 1 liter of consumed water. Sound effects are used

to simulate the full bucket and when the participant must start over again.

The teenagers can use a mobile phone to record videos and report findings

on actual versus perceived water consumption in the home by using Locast

(Figure 2). Locast is a location-based platform developed in the MIT Mobile

Experience Lab that combines distributed Web and Mobile applications to

create hyper-local and highly connected experiences. Locast allows users

to share videos theyve recorded on mobile devices for immediate uploading

onto the Internet to engage the entire community. Data about consumed

water quantity can be transferred from the probe to the mobile phone throughsound communication (similar to a modem). Video reports and water quantity

data can also be uploaded to the Locast Web site to enable school classes to

discuss their findings and develop ideas for sustainable water use.

Figure 2. Using Locast on the mobile phone


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31global trends

2. Water Wisecreating documentaries to increase awareness of water

usage and consumption

The second design introduces the idea of a guided video production by

using mobile phones and the Locast platform. Mobile phones now provide

teenagers with a tool for explorative learning and civic media creation within

their own cities. Teenagers can take on the role of citizen journalists and

create short documentaries to raise the city of Trentos awareness about

sustainable water use.

The Trento region is surrounded by glaciers, and therefore, is rich in high-

quality water resources. Italy, however, consumes more bottled water than

any other European country, and ranks second in bottled water consumption

worldwide, after Mexico5. Bottled water in Trento is more expensive and of

inferior quality to the tap water in that area. Although the majority of Trentos

inhabitants consume bottled water (72.1%), consumption remains less than

the national average of Italy. (87%)6

Nonetheless, the enormous amount of plastic water bottles fabricated each

year creates an immense drain on resources and contributes to carbon

dioxide (CO2) emissions. Drayage (transportation of goods a short distance)

alone further drains fossil fuels, contributing to CO2 emissions as they burn.

The increase in global atmospheric CO2 concentrations is considered to be

the main cause of global warming and hence the increase in global average

temperatures.7

Glaciers are disappearing worldwide at an alarming rate as a result of the

earths increased temperatures. The glaciers in northern Italy have decreaseddramatically during the past 40 years, especially since 19808 and many

glaciers are now smaller than they have been for thousands of years.

5 International Bottled Water Association, Bottled Water Reporter, May/April 2010, accessed March 13, 2011,

6 Federconsumatori, 2008, Acqua in Bottiglia: LAffare dellAcqua, accessed March 13, 2011,

7 Solomon, S, Qin, D, Manning, M, Chen, Z, Marquis, M, Averyt, KB, Tignor, M, & H.L. Miller [eds.] 2007, IPCC, 2007:

Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to

the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cam-

bridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, accessed March 13, 2011, http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-

report/ar4/wg1/ar4-wg1-spm.pdf

8 United Nations Environment Programme. Global Glacier Changes: facts and figures, accessed March 13, 2011,

http://www.grid.unep.ch/glaciers/


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In the Trento region, glacier loss was about 39% from 1993 to 2003, and it is

predicted by the World Wildlife Federation that the European Alps will lose

major parts of their glacier coverage within the next few decades9. Melting

glaciers could trigger floods and landslides and result in a scarcity of water.

As part of H2flOw, teenagers can investigate and learn about water usage

by carrying out different missions, collecting data, and developing opinions

on the subject. Pre-recorded videos introduce each mission, complete with

background information and end goals. To complete a mission the students

will be required to record a video that illustrates the issues surrounding water

usage (Figure 3). For example, the teenagers can create a video survey byasking the general public about the types of water they generally consume,

investigating the types of bottles on grocery store shelves, interviewing

employees of the store, and reporting about calculated CO2 emission related

to the production and transportation of a product. The video clips created

during a mission can make up a scene in the documentary. The mobile

application will automatically stitch the video clips together into a narrative.

Figure 3. Teenagers using the H2flow application.

9 World Wildlife Federation, Going, Going, Gone! Climate Change and Global Glacier Decline, accessed March 13,

2011,


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33global trends

The videos themselves would be template-driven. Each video recording

template provides the user with a shot list, a list of the videos needed to

create the intended content. The shot list is sequentially presented on the

mobile screen, and each presented shot automatically stops recording after

a preset number of seconds (Figure 4). The shot list inspires users to work

with short video clips, different camera angles and types of video shots, e.g.,

long shots, close-ups, and panoramas. The application provides a set of

defined templates, including those needed for an interview, a report, a vox

populi (voice of the people), or a panel discussion.

Figure 4. Screenshot of video recording template.

Depending on the mission and how the participants choose to approach

it, different templates will work better than others; therefore, users shouldselect templates that best correspond to their concept of the mission.

Each mission results in geo-referenced video clips that are uploaded and

shared on the Locast Web site (Figure 5). These clips can later be viewed as

video reports on a map according to where they were shot or be combined

into a narrative and viewed as a documentary.

Through this exploration process, participants will better comprehend the

role of water and environmental issues concerning water in their community.Participants will learn about global issues related to sustainable water use,

such as the impact of bottled water consumption on the environment and the

future of water resources.


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But this project also will contribute to an increased awareness about local

matters, such as differences in citizens perception of water use and the

extent of bottled water consumption in a local community, and will provide

a perspective on the citys future and the existing water resources in theregion. This process will provide teenagers not only with a local but also with

a worldview on the topic of sustainable water use.

Figure 5. The Locast Web site.

Implementation of H2flOw is also scheduled for Sao Paulo, Brazil. In that

undertaking, more than 5,000 students will be involved in creating media

content about sustainability water issues related to their particular cities.

Sharing the created content on the Locast Web site will create awareness of

local issues on a global scale. Schools can then use this online resource to

teach about local and distant situations.


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2// The SustainableConnected Home


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Energy Mobility Network

Natalie Cheung, MIT Mobile Experience Lab

Within the Sustainable Connected Home Project is the Energy Mobility

Network, first created to provide more information to users about their

consumption of electricity. In todays society, it is common is to turn an

electronic device on and leave it running, with little to no thought about energy

consumption. The Energy Mobility Network project aims to raise awareness

about wasting energy. There are three main goals in this project:

First, alter peoples perception of their energy consumption by using just-in-

time feedback as a means to modify behavior. Just-in-time feedback allows

the user to see how much electricity is consumed in any given hour and the

difference in costs when the electricity is used at different hours of the day.

Second, move from a device-centric mode of thought to a human-centered

mode of control, where people, instead of devices, are the main components

of the interaction.

Third, change peoples perceptions about electricity. Electricity should be a

social responsibility instead of an individual responsibility. The overall system

design is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Energy mobility network, system design.


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37sustainable connected home

As shown in Figure 1, the user communicates with the Energy Mobility

Network by using a device that has been dubbed the Energy ID. The Energy

ID helps turn devices on and off that the user wants to access. All of these

devices are plugged into outlets that are directly sourced to the electricalgrid. The Energy ID shows the energy consumption and costs of that energy

in real time (just-in-time feedback) and in an easy-to-understand manner. A

more tech-savvy user might have an Energy ID in the form of a mobile device

that displays energy costs in terms of kilowatts; whereas, a person who is

more interested in the amount of money spent might wish to see energy

usage in terms of the local currency. The Energy ID interface will allow users

to identify which devices are available, which networked friends are available,and which devices are in use. An example of what the interface may look like

is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Energy ID interface.

The Energy ID can be embodied in different objects as preferred by the end-

user. A tech-savvy user might prefer using a mobile device to access Energy

ID information, whereas a family planner might prefer having it on a watch

and a teenager might prefer having it on a key fob. Information can be further

customized so that the family planner can access information on costs,

consumption, and usage, and the tech-savvy user can access information

on energy regulations or fluctuations in the consumption and cost of that

energy.


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A teenager might prefer having an Energy ID that is reflective of energy

consumption by a given social group rather than that of an individuals use.

The system will calculate cost based on several factors: the amount of time

used, the amount of electricity being consumed, and the users profile. EachEnergy ID user has a profile, which is also a fluid identity that changes based

on the context and the persons location. For instance, if the user is at school,

the system recognizes the user as a student. If the user is at a friends home,

the system recognizes the user as a guest. The Energy ID recognizes the

various profiles and charges the user accordingly. Energy costs and charges

depend upon the context in which someone uses a device. A student, for

example, might be charged only 50% of the energy cost and the schoolwould cover the other 50%. At home, however, a user would be assessed

100% of the energy costs.Based on the final system design, the MIT Mobile

Experience Lab has created a prototype that provides instantaneous

feedback to the user, allowing the user to turn devices on and off. The current

prototype uses a Zigbee device that allows remote wireless connections in

the system and among users and outlets. Zigbee is a small, low-power radio

system that will stream data about the user back and forth from the EnergyID, outlet, and the server. For instance, the user could get information from

his Zigbee about his current electricity consumption costs and could have

it displayed on his Energy ID. The system also integrates a Kent Display,

a cholesteric liquid crystal display, as the new screen. The Kent Display is

aesthetically similar to an LCD display, but it consumes minimal power. This

new technology is essential to energy efficiency because the screen stays on

even when there is no power to it. This allows for minimal power in the Energy

Mobility Network.

Passive and active users will require different Energy ID devices. For passive

users, ultraviolet (UV) technology will be integrated into the system. The

passive users would carry devices similar to those in the first row of Figure 3,

e.g., a key fob, bracelet, or card. When the user accesses the Energy Mobility

Network system, the Energy ID will appear similar to the devices shown in the

second row of Figure 3. The colors seen in the UV light signify the amount ofelectricity the user consumed and saved. The saturation of color will depend

on the specific amount of electricity consumed or produced. The color will

change based on information in the database to communicate information to

the end-user.

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Figure 3. Examples of passive devices that use UV light.

For more tech-savvy users or more active users, the Energy ID can be

incorporated into a mobile device.

The Energy Mobility Network has an additional feature: The system can

be configured to calculate co-shared costs, such as when two people are

watching television together. The cost of using the television can be dividedby the number of people who are watching a program. Although this adds a

level of sophistication and complication to the system, it allows users to make

conscious decisions about energy usage. When two people watch television

together, one can offer to pay for the event, similar to social situations where

one person picks up the cost for the whole group (such as dinner, drinks,

or theater/movie tickets). Furthermore, with information logged into the

database over time, the system will also be able to identify patterns of energy

consumption to help users become more energy efficient. The system can

detect when certain devices are being used, such as when the user turns on

the television or which devices are used most frequently on specific days of

the week, or at what time of the day the user consumes the most electricity.

The system can then suggest ways to conserve electricity in the long run.

The Energy Mobility Network gives users an alternate view of electricity. By

making energy use a real-time measurable event, end-users can determine

when using the device in question is most cost-efficient. The network will

further accommodate the user by remotely turning devices on and off.

These additional features of the network can bring awareness of energy

consumption to new levels, creating a new social realm for the future.


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Lighting: How the Electrochromic Faade Influences theInternal Lighting of the Sustainable Connected Home

Guglielmo Carra, MIT Mobile Experience Lab

Several recent studies have shown that buildings account for 50% of the total

emissions of CO2

in the atmosphere. A primary factor affecting the rate is the

emissions created to make buildings visually and thermally comfortable. The

Mobile Experience Laboratory is developing a building that combines a strong

sensitivity to environmental issues by implementing cutting-edge materials

and construction techniques that emphasize sustainable living. This will beaccomplished through the use of information technologies that educate and

guide consumers toward the benefits of having an eco-friendly lifestyle.

The Sustainable Connected Home incorporates environmentally sound

materials and systems: wooden walls and ceilings, X-lam technology,

heavy insulation offering low thermal transmittance values (U), and rooftop

photovoltaic and solar thermal systems. Sensors installed throughout thehome will continuously monitor energy consumption, sending data to graphic

interfaces to inform the occupants of their energy consumption, thus raising

their awareness about energy choices.

The south glazed faade of the Sustainable Connected Home plays a

significant role in this process. This faade incorporates the green concepts

of a contemporary, dynamic, and transparent home. The sustainable

architecture is both environmentally and socially friendly and appealing.

The windows serve a dual purpose: a visual connection between people and

the outside environment, and a technical component that can increase the

efficiency of the buildings use of light and energy. Large glass faades are

often perceived as an element of discomfort owing to glare from the sun and

sky. They are also known to disperse heat necessary to keep buildings warm

in cold weather and cool in warm weather, and create condensation in humidclimates.


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Table 1. Values of reference for Italian residential buildings, European

technical standards adopted by Italian law.

The daylight simulation uses the two models provided by the CIE: Standard

Overcast Sky distribution (the sky is the only source of light radiation) and

Standard Clear Sky distribution (the sun is the only source of light radiation).

The system will exclude temporary phenomena with the help of a systemof sensors, still in development, that will simulate external conditions and

optimize data collection.

Figure 1. Typical distribution of illuminance inside the house in daylight

conditions.

The initial analysis began with conditions in which the faade was completely

transparent; all window modules were inactivated to permit the dataset

to analyze the faades behavior at this basic level. The next stage of the

analysis was to understand how activation of the electrochromic window,

or groups of windows, influenced the internal parameters of illumination.

Various geometric configurations were analyzed (primarily along horizontal

and vertical lines) to determine how they bind to the lighting inside the

prototype. We found that the position of the horizontal lines is important for

the internal verification and varying their on-off placement the results are

significantly different.


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The placement of the windows plus the light filtered through the line of

windows influenced the ratio of direct to reflected light. During the simulation

of several vertical patterns, the number of active or inactive modulesthat

is, the electrochromic coverage ratio was expected to have different effectson the interior lighting.

Figure 2. Eight patterns of vertical electrochromic lines in the south faade.

Each pattern, however, resulted in similar lighting conditions, or equivalence

class, and each had a consistent value of interior lighting. It is possible then

to activate a particular number of windows in a preset geometric pattern

and yield the same value of interior lighting as you would achieve with a

completely different geometric configuration. This can be accomplished by

achieving the same electrochromic coverage ratio.

Thus, it is possible to change from one pattern to another, within the same

equivalence class, and consistently provide the optimal balance of energy

to meet the specific needs of the occupants. It has been demonstrated, by

comparing configurations at different periods of time, that it is possible to

generalize this principle for both CIE calculation models.


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Figure 3. Scheme used for the creation of mixed cases between the 1st and

8th cases, comparison between the internal lighting values for three mixed

patterns.

The main challenge was to determine the specific number of windows

that require activation at specific times of the year to create an internal

environment suitable for the occupants. It was important to determine how

many modules had to be activated and how many had to be inactivated. As

previously mentioned, all temporary environmental phenomena (such as the

passage of a cloud in the sky that obscured the sun) were excluded from this

process.

The sensor system installed in the prototype would reorganize the faade

and automatically set up the new number of windows to be activated to

correspond with each phenomenon. Figure 4 provides the relation between

the number of active windows and the value of the internal illuminance.


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Figure 5. The number of windows that must be active throughout the year at

1 PM for an Overcast Sky distribution and a Clear Sky distribution.

Additional research is required to develop a system of artificial lighting

that follows the same principle of the pixels adopted in the faade. If the

electrochromic pixels correspond to windows being on or off, the inner

pixels are defined by turning on spotlights grafted onto a rectangular grid

with square module. This grid can trace all possible paths within the building,

so that every place in the house can be illuminated as needed. The light will

follow the movement of the occupants and turn on and off accordingly. Thelights will also have the ability to vary the opening of the light cone and rotate

(with limited angles) around the installation axis.


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Figure 6. Examples of activation of organic pixels for defined paths inside the

Sustainable Connected Home. The cyan picks resemble the highest values of

light from the presence of a spotlight.

Sensors are used to scan the probable path of the inhabitants. Lighting

energy consumption can be optimized because artificial light will be present

only where there is activity within the house. The automated features will

turn off artificial lighting when it is not in use. The artificial lighting system

also maintains the uniformity of lighting conditions throughout the house.

This overall process alerts occupants about their lighting consumption and

permits the system to correct less sustainable habits.


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48

Designing a Robust Energy Controller

Wesley Graybill, Masahiro Ono, Brian Williams,

MIT, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

Numerous components of the home require energy or different resources to

operate. For example, the heating system, TV, microwave oven, lighting, and

other electronic devices require electricity, while the dishwasher, washing

machine, and air conditioning require water and electricity. Since resources

are limited or expensive, the goal of an energy controller should be to control

the components of the home and minimize the use of resources, while still

meeting the needs of the residents. The primary goal of a recent study is to

minimize the energy consumed by the heating ventilation and air-conditioning

(HVAC) system, while maintaining comfortable temperature levels for the

inhabitants.

Temperature Control Issues

The target variable that we wish to control is the internal temperature of the

home (Tin). The T

inis influenced by a combination of the outside temperature

via conduction through the walls, solar radiation through the windows, and

the HVAC system. Traditional homes typically use only the HVAC system

as a means of controlling the temperature. The prototype home will have

electrochromic windows, which allow the controller to dynamically change

the tinting on the windows. This effectively allows the system to control the

solar radiation entering the home. Ideally, the dynamic windows use solarenergy to heat the house in the winter, reducing use of the heating system,

if not eliminating it altogether. Conversely, in the summer, the windows can

be manipulated to block the suns rays so the air-conditioning system is not

required often, if at all. Inherent in this formulation is a level of uncertainty,

including solar heat input as well as outside temperatures. The controller

must manage the HVAC system and electrochromic windows so that the

indoor temperatures remain in the comfort range of the resident, even in theface of this uncertainty (Figure 1).


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Figure 1. Problem formulation.

There are numerous advantages to the dynamic windows. The variable tinting

on the windows permits flexibility. When dynamic windows are in use, they

can block solar heat during hot summer days, thus reducing AC use. Theycan also capture solar heat during warm winter days, reducing heater use

during the night. In a simulation, it was determined that, when compared

with the worst-case, real-life scenario, there was a 26% energy savings in the

summer and a 16% energy savings in the winter when the windows are used.

Most home heating systems operate with reactive controllers; however,

current reactive controllers are not efficient. A temperature is set, and theheating or cooling system controls for one temperature. A model predictive

controller, however, takes the current state and plans over a certain time

frame (typically a day) what the settings of the HVAC and dynamic windows

should be, while maintaining the requirements for the resident. This approach

provides useful information to help the controller formulate an optimal plan.

Figure 2 shows the planning results of the model predictive controller on a

summer day. The red curves represent the comfortable temperature range

of the resident, while the blue curve illustrates the indoor temperature.

Compared with a simple reactive control, the model predictive controller

(MPC) provides a 10% savings over the course of a 2-day simulation.


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Figure 2. A reactive predictive controller vs. a model predictive controller.

10% energy savings over reactive PID control

The MPC will plan for optimum energy efficiency, assuming accurate

information about the system. Outstanding and unknown variables remain:

accurate weather forecasts and accurate information about the residentsschedule. If the actual weather deviates by a few degrees from the forecast,

or if a clear sky suddenly becomes cloudy (as with summer thunderstorms),

using a standard MPC may cause the temperature to fall outside of the

residents comfortable temperature range.

One design that overcomes that obstacle is a robust MPC that probabilistically

guarantees that the residents temperature constraints are satisfied. Toachieve this, a model of the uncertainty within the system is necessary.

Instead of assuming a definite forecast of the outdoor temperature, the

controller assumes a probability distribution over the possible outdoor

temperatures. Based on the uncertainty model, a safety margin can be

computed around the residents temperature constraints. The controller then

generates a control sequence for the HVAC and windows that stays within

the safety margin. Controlling within the safety margin guarantees that thetemperature of the home will only violate the residents constraints at most a

fixed percentage of the time.


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3// Buildingand Fabrication


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The Three Autonomous Architectures of the SustainableConnected Home

Sotirios D. Kotsopoulos, PhD, Carla Farina, PhD, MIT Mobile Experience Laboratory

The Sustainable Connected Home is presented in this section as the

interaction of three autonomous architectures: (1) the spatial arrangement

of the tectonic elements; (2) the assembly of sustainable materials; and (3)

the cognitive architecture of its active systems. The Sustainable Connected

Home, a prototype of which is moving into construction in Rovereto,

Italy, aims beyond the goals of conventional sustainable architecture. Anintelligent sensing and control system, embedded within the corporeal

architecture, allows for real-time monitoring and reconfiguring of the states

of architectural elements, which thus become responsive. This capacity

revolutionizes architecture, where normally tectonic elements are passive, or

require actuation by users. This presentation offers insight into the dynamic

relations among the corporeal elements of architecture and the incorporeal

attributes and events that are associated with them.

The Sustainable Connected Home incorporates a multidisciplinary approach,

involving specialists from different areas: architects, social planners, and

building technology and information-communication technology specialists.

The two main deliverables of the Sustainable Connected Home research are:

a material, corporeal architecture and a computing, incorporeal architecture.

The Sustainable Connected Home was envisioned as an evolving experiment

that supplies a fresh look on many parallel issues, such as social living,

environmental sustainability, connectivity, energy consumption, and energy

production. Within this general framework of objectives, the methodology

that we had adopted combines active and passive systems and attempts to

integrate a prototype residential unit within the context of a city or the natural

landscape in a way that permits maximum connectivity (Figure 1). The overall

framework of the smart city of the future is envisioned as a smart, energy

efficient grid, where the houses are the active nodes and the inhabitants are

the active participants of a community.

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Figure 1. The residential units are envisioned to perform as active nodes in

a responsive grid, as the inhabitants are envisioned to be active participants

in a community.

Current research expands on four major areas:

1. Sustainable Architecturea specialized architecture that embraces

environmentally conscious principles

2. Smart Energy Systemssystems that use renewable energy sources (sun,

wind, biomass) to supply energy for residential units

3. Information & Communication Technologies (ICT)integration of

innovative information and communication technologies to create responsive

environments with renewable energy sources. (See Spinak presentation: ICT-

Based Urban Planning Initiatives: Facilitators of Movement, Communication,

and Opportunity)

4. Social Sustainabilityintegration of environmental, social, and economic

issues in existing urban communities

More specifically, the first prototype of the Sustainable Connected Home

integrates five unique systems: (1) a passive high thermal mass envelope; (2)

an active glass faade; (3) a high thermal mass base with heating and cooling

capability; (4) a renewable energy production system; and (5) a high-level

control system. The design of the home consists of an open plan space with

an electrochromic glass faade with southern exposure. The building exhibits

high thermal resistance and low conductivity to sustain thermal energy.


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55building and fabrication

The high thermal mass envelope is an assembly of wood (on the exterior),

wood-based insulation, and stone (on the interior), passively sustaining heat

during the winter and protecting against excessive heat during the summer.

The glass faade is a matrix of 5x20 digitally controlled windows functioningas an active filter between the exterior and interior.

Each windowpane is independently operable to permit adjustable airflow.

Each window glass has an overlay of two electronically switchable materials:

the first provides the desirable degree of visibility, securing privacy; the

second provides a desirable de gree of sunlight penetration, securing thermal

performance. The high thermal mass base accommodates an underfloor

heating/cooling system, and a solar cogeneration plant provides electricity,

hot/cold water, and air. An autonomous sensing and control system is

responsive to the weather conditions and the desires of the inhabitants, so

that the overall performance of the house remains constantly optimal. (For

specifics on the glass faade, see Carra presentation: Lighting: How the

Electrochromic Faade Influences the Internal Lighting of the Sustainable

Connected Home.) The relationship among the five systems of the

Sustainable Connected Home are orchestrated on three different levels, which

remain distinct in their logic of organization and their material constitution.

All of the systems operate as a unit to provide a responsive, energy-efficient

environment. The logic of organization of these systems can be thought of as

constituting three autonomous architectures: the spatial arrangement of the

tectonic elements, the assembly of sustainable materials, and the cognitive

architecture of the active systems.

Methodology

A typological study, mapping elementary building layouts and their capability

to accommodate various energy systems (e.g., wind turbines, solar panels)

was initiated. This mapping yielded the combination of typical building

geometries such as the oblong, donut, and cube, and how these

geometries affect the performance of energy systems such as, solar panels,

wind turbines, and active windows (Table 1).


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Table 1. Early typological study, mapping possible elementary building

layouts and their capability to accommodate alternative systems of energy

production.

The scheme of the Sustainable Connected Home was based on the oblong,

or the bar-house style (Figure 2). The early design schemes were conceived

on the assumption that solar panels, or alternatively wind turbines, would

be used for energy production purposes. Both solar- and wind-powered

schemes employed a system of dynamic switchable windows (Figures 3a

and 3b). Both design alternatives combined passive and active technologies

for insulating, heating, and cooling the house interior. More careful simulation

of the yearly weather conditions for specific sites in Zambana and Rovereto,Italy, indicated that harvesting the wind would not yield any satisfactory

results for the purpose of energy production. Accordingly, implementation of

the wind-powered design scheme was aborted.

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Figure 2a. Early conceptual sketch by William J Mithcell.

Figure 2b. Early conceptual rendering.

Figure 3a. Wind turbines were proposed as an efficient way to harvest the

wind energy. Passive thermal storage integrally combined means for passive

heating and coolong of the building.

Figure 3b. Solar panels provide seasonal energy, cooling for summer and

heating for winter. Dynamic windows modify thermal performance and

visibilty based on weather change and preference.

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The early design iterations were coupled with performance simulations. The

simulations confirmed the hypothesis that higher energy efficiency could be

achieved through integrating passive and active systems in a unique building

envelope. The consecutive design iterations integrated the experimentalfindings by addressing the combination of passive and active systems

more explicitly. The passive systems include a high thermal mass base and

building envelope with a northern orientation. The active systems include an

active electrochromic glass faade and the control system. The passive and

active systems become the driving components both from a technical and

from a design point of view. The combination of solar system and a micro

combined heat and power (CHP) technology generator comprise the mainenergy production system of the house (Figure 3c).

Figure 3c. Consecutive design iterations resulted to the integration of active

and passive components in a single building envelope.

Two sustainable principles underlie the logic of the house design. First,

the house secures optimum energy performance. Second, it is a tectonic

expression of customized sustainability. Optimum energy performance

is achieved through careful consideration of local natural and weather

conditions. To achieve this, certain variables must be identified and

compiled, including statistical weather data, and data produced via real-

time simulation. Customized sustainability requires consideration of local

parameters: cultural, social, and economic.

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For this purpose, the artificial technological and economic contexts and

conditions that exist in the area of Rovereto, Italy, were carefully analyzed.

Consecutive design iterations integrated the two sustainable principles

(noted above) into the final design of the house. For example, sun path datasimulation plus illumination and temperature simulation provided information

on the performance of the electrochromic faade during specific days in

the summer. The simulations provided quantitative information on how the

sunlight affects the interior illumination and temperature. This information

was compared with simulations that show how the faade performs during

winter. The arrangement of the glass faade was set to maximize the yearly

solar gain. Based on the yearly energy performance, the material constitutionand the thickness of the northern high thermal mass wall was developed to

insulate the house from the environment while preserving interior thermal

conditions for as long as possible (Figures 4a and 4b).

Figure 4a. After identifying the location, the sun path and weather data were

analyzed to maximize the yearly solar gains for the prototype.

Figure 4bi and 4bii. Interior lighting analysis through computer simulation, for

winter, December 21, and summer, June 21, at 1 p.m.


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Three Autonomous Architectures

Spatial Arrangement

The spatial arrangement of the house follows an open plan. The simplicityof the plan shortens the process of computer modeling and simulation. The

simplicity of the building envelope permits better control over the input and

output data on simulations of temperature, light, and airflow. On an entirely

different level, the arrangement of the interior space was left flexible to become

an open test bed for future inventions related to sustainable living. The house

interior can be subdivided in alternate ways, depending on desired future

utilities. At the primary stage, there is a provision for the basic house utilities:a sleeping area, a bathroom area, a living area, a dining area, and a kitchen

(Figure 5). These can be reorganized as desired. The initial arrangement also

includes a patio adjacent to the electrochromic southern faade.

Figure 5. The spatial arrangement of the prototype follows an open plan.

Figure 6. Alternative rendered views of preliminary interior arrangements.


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The house is organized into primary (I) and secondary (II) spatial modules,

following a sequence of I II I II - I (4.80 m 2.96 m 4.80 m 2.96 m

4.80 m, respectively) (Figure 7). The total length of the house is 66 6.5

(20.0 m), the width of each module is 25 5 (7.75 m). The primary modulesaccommodate sleeping, living, and cooking. Secondary modules correspond

to the eating and lavatory functions. The primary and secondary areas do not

correspond to distinct rooms, but to open functional areas.

Figure 7. Module (left), spatial relation (center) and spatial arrangement (right).

Sustainable Materials

The thermal performance of a house is greatly affected by its location

and orientation. Having a south-facing orientation maximizes a buildings

exposure to sunlight. The south-facing orientation plus illumination and

sun-path simulation provided the data necessary to identify the optimum

orientation and selection of building materials for the prototype. The

building envelope of the prototype exhibits high thermal resistance and low

conductivity to sustain thermal energy. On the south side, the electrochromic

faade regulates the sunlight penetration and the view.

On the north side, the house is protected from the natural elements (Figure 8)

by a high thermal mass envelope that isolates the interior from the exterior.

The high thermal mass envelope is an assembly of wood on the exterior and

wood-based insulation and stone on the interior that is passively designed to

sustain heat during the winter and prevent excessive heat during the summer

(Figure 9).


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Figure 8, 9. The overall performance of the house is based on the efficient

integration of two different technological solutions. The passive and active

components of the building envelope are oriented towards north and south,

respectively.

Local building materials were deliberately chosen for the projectwood,

concrete, and insulation forms with high thermal lagging capacity. Good

lagging is important to preserve heat during the winter and limit excessiveheat during the summer. The exterior wooden skin and the structural system

of the passive envelope were developed by the Trees and Timber Institute

(IVALSA) in Trento, Italy. The interior skin includes a high thermal mass stone

wall. A high thermal mass base, made of concrete and wood, accommodates

an underfloor heating/cooling system, while a solar cogeneration plant

provides electricity, hot/cold water, and air (Figure 10).


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Figure 10. High thermal mass passive system, based on wood, provides

excellent thermal performance and it is earthquake safe.

Active Systems

A fundamental design guideline was to integrate the passive thermal building

components with active components that can dynamically respond to the

changing weather conditions or adapt to the occupants demands. The main

active component of the envelope is the electrochromic glass faade that

covers the houses south elevation.


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This glass faade is a matrix of 5 x 20 digitally controlled windows functioning

as an active filter between exterior and interior, allowing controllable cross-

ventilation and penetration of sunlight. There are 100 operable windows

whose main characteristic is to regulate the air/light/heat flow into the house(Figures 11).

Figure 11. The dynamic facade is a reprogrammable active system that

supports environmentally and socially sustainable behaviours.

Table 2. Enumeration of possible actuation typologies for the windows of the

south facade.

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Table 3. Methodic exposition of the overall kinetic effect caused by different

actuation typologies.

This first prototype house integrates some extreme new concepts of

sustainability, back-to-back with other, more traditional ones. The purpose is

to determine the performance of the new systems and to see the problems

during real-life operation. Along these lines, the electrochromic southern

faade is an active element that will be tested next to the passive high thermal

mass envelope on the north. The southern glass faade was designed to

achieve three important objectives: (1) regulate airflow; (2) regulate the

percentage of sun and heat that penetrates the house; and (3) regulate

interior illumination.


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The first feature, air regulation, is straightforward. Each window is

independently operable, so that the permeability to airflow is adjustable.

Cross ventilation becomes possible when windows facing north and windows

facing south are open simultaneously. The windows of the dynamic curtainwall are activated by a system of electronic actuators. At the aesthetic level,

the house takes advantage of the strong kinetic effect created by the dynamic

repositioning of the windows to animate the south faade. Accordingly, several

different states of elevation can be achieved. The remaining two features of

the dynamic windows concern the regulation of light/heat penetration and

of visibility. Each window glass is an overlay of two electronically switchable

materials: the first (polymer-dispersed liquid crystals [PDLC]) provides thedesirable degree of visibility, securing privacy; the second (electrochromic)

provides the desirable degree of sunlight penetration, securing thermal

performance (Figure 12).

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