High Performance Building Lab
The HPBL is a transdiscplinary and convergent research lab housed in the School of Architecture, College of Design at Georgia Tech. Our goal is to disruptively transform design decision making processes to address complex societal problems through the development of impactful emergent technologies. We operate at the scale of components, architecture, urban design, and planning practices through basic and applied research, and by developing sustainable and resilient design workflows. The HPBL attracts qualified students with a background in architecture, design and technology, and/or engineering. The focus is addressing the calamities of our climate crises, especially by empowering marginalized communities that will be at most dire risk. Students take basic courses in architecture, energy, and the environment, as well as electives in engineering disciplines, along with courses that apply these subjects to buildings. The lab is organized into dynamic Research Groups that members form according to funded projects and research interests. We continuously contribute to the rigorous investigation of sustainability and equity in architecture and inventing the next state-of-the-art in building design technology.
Panagoulia, E., & Rakha, T. (2023). Data Reliability in BIM and Performance Analytics: A Survey of Contemporary AECO Practice. Journal of Architectural Engineering, 29(2), 04023006. https://doi.org/10.1061/JAEIED.AEENG-1483
Kastner, P., & Dogan, T. (2023). A GAN-based surrogate model for instantaneous urban wind flow prediction. Building and Environment, 110384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2023.110384
Heidelberger, E., & Rakha, T. (2022). Inclusive urban building energy modeling through socioeconomic data: A persona-based case study for an underrepresented community. Building and Environment, 222, 109374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109374
Rakha, T., El Masri, Y., Chen, K., Panagoulia, E., & De Wilde, P. (2022). Building envelope anomaly characterization and simulation using drone time-lapse thermography. Energy and Buildings, 259, 111754. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2021.111754
Kastner, P., & Dogan, T. (2022). Eddy3D: A toolkit for decoupled outdoor thermal comfort simulations in urban areas. Building and Environment, 212, 108639. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108639
Young, E., Kastner, P., Dogan, T., Chokhachian, A., Mokhtar, S., & Reinhart, C. (2022). Modeling outdoor thermal comfort along cycling routes at varying levels of physical accuracy to predict bike ridership in Cambridge, MA. Building and Environment, 208, 108577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108577
Kastner, P., & Dogan, T. (2020). A cylindrical meshing methodology for annual urban computational fluid dynamics simulations. Journal of Building Performance Simulation, 13(1), 59-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/19401493.2019.1692906
Rakha, T., & Gorodetsky, A. (2018). Review of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) applications in the built environment: Towards automated building inspection procedures using drones. Automation in Construction, 93, 252-264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.05.002