05 — Research · NYIT · 2025–

Ongoing

A New Precedent

Bringing building performance into the architectural precedent study.

RoleResearch assistant, NYIT
First precedentFarnsworth House
ToolsRhino · ClimateStudio · InDesign
BenchmarksLEED v4.1 · ASHRAE 90.1 · Local Law 97

The research

A precedent study usually reads a building through its form, plan and materials. This one asks how the building actually performs.

I simulate each precedent in Rhino and ClimateStudio, and designed the template that presents the results.

Axonometric line drawing of the Farnsworth House: a glass pavilion raised on steel columns beside its travertine terrace
Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1951.

One board, four lenses

01 — The template

Same board, same order, so any two buildings in the library read side by side.

Farnsworth House

02 — The first precedent
The envelope is a minimal steel-and-glass shell with almost no insulation, air sealing or moisture control. It’s elegant, but systemically fragile.
Architect
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Location
Plano, Illinois
Completed
1951
Climate
ASHRAE 5A

Climate and site

03 — Shading, wind and site
Isometric site model: a test cube on the bare riverbank terrain
The test cube on the bare site.
Isometric site model: the same test cube surrounded by the site’s tree cover beside the Fox River
The same cube inside the surrounding forest.
Table of radiation maps on the test cube’s roof and four elevations, for warm and cold hours, without and with site context
The tree canopy is the site’s main shade.
Sun studies of the house in its forest at 9am, 12pm and 3pm on the summer and winter solstices, with shadows cast
Shading

Deep summer shade, full winter sun

Wind roses over the site plan for the heating months and the cooling months
Wind

Wind follows the river

Sun on the envelope

04 — Site irradiance

The roof takes high winter sun because the leaf-off forest lets it through. In summer the canopy cuts irradiance on every façade, leaving the west side with moderate afternoon gain.

Radiation maps on the house’s roof and four elevations, warm and cold hours, without and with context
Roof and elevations, warm and cold hours, without and with context.
Isometric radiation maps of the house, warm and cold hours, with and without contextColour scale from 0 to 200 kBTU per square foot

Scale: 0–200 kBTU/ft².

Daylight and glare

05 — Daylight / glare
Floor plans mapped for average lux, annual sunlight exposure and spatial daylight autonomy, with and without context
Daylighting

A glass box, flooded with light

Fisheye luminance renderings looking south and north, with the original glazing and with improved glazing
Glare

Swapping the glass cuts solar gain by three-quarters

Energy and carbon

06 — Energy use
183Site EUI, kBTU/ft²
90Baseline EUI, kBTU/ft²
39Operational carbon, lbCO₂/ft²
$3Energy cost per ft²

Modeled as four perimeter zones, the house uses about twice its baseline energy per square foot, and heating dominates from November to March.

Isometric thermal model of the house split into four perimeter zones
The thermal model: north, east, south and west zones.
Monthly energy balance chart of gains and losses by component, with site EUI, operational carbon and energy cost
Monthly gains and losses by component.
Next project The Lantern →
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