Bill Braham, the Andrew Gordon Professor of Architecture, considers the future.
The exterior of a Mongolian ger, part of a study conducted by Braham and his team for UNICEF and Ger Hub programs to reduce or eliminate coal consumption in the ger district.
Bill Braham came to the University of Pennsylvania in 1980 to pursue a very specific goal: to study environmental architecture, a virtually unheard-of specialization at the time.
With a background in civil and mechanical engineering, he was determined to understand how buildings could carry design impact while lessening their environmental loads. Four decades later, Braham is the Director of the Master of Environmental Building Design and the newly appointed Andrew Gordon Professor of Architecture at the Weitzman School of Design.
Endowed by the Orville Gordon Browne Foundation, the professorship is named in memory of architect, artist, and Penn alumnus Andrew Gordon, C’83. His practice “was very much interdisciplinary—something I think he shares with the Weitzman School,” says his sister and Foundation board member Elizabeth Gordon Dellenbaugh. According to Dellenbaugh, Gordon was particularly drawn to a program that at the time was called “Design for the Environment,” receiving his undergraduate degree the same year that Braham received his master’s, though the two never met.
The Foundation was created by Gordon and his partner, the late Christopher Browne, C’69, an investor and Trustee of the University who supported a host of initiatives at Penn. In addition to the recent named professorship, the Foundation is also providing support for the new Weitzman Hall, where a gallery will be named in Gordon’s memory.
Support for Sustainability
Today, as the Andrew Gordon Professor of Architecture, Braham is advancing cutting-edge architecture and helping Penn to lead on the great challenges of our time through the Center for Environmental Building and Design, a faculty research unit and consultancy at Weitzman dedicated to improving the environmental future of buildings and cities.
“The support from the Orville Gordon Browne Foundation means several things. First and foremost, it means that we will continue to advance our work,” notes Braham. The Center has worked with Penn on its Carbon and Sustainability Action Plan; with UNICEF and its Cooking, Heating, Insulation Products and Services program in Mongolia; and with many institutions developing energy and carbon action plans, including the University of Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum & Gardens and New Bolton Center, Penn Medicine, Chautauqua Institution, and Nakashima Woodworkers.
Bill Braham, the Andrew Gordon Professor of Architecture at Penn
Active Research, Cool Designs
While there are many approaches to energy efficiency in the built environment, Braham sees the enormous promise of innovative cooling technologies in the context of the climate crisis. Working with Penn colleagues Dorit Aviv and Eric Teitelbaum, as well as Forrest Meggers at Princeton, Braham is collaborating to develop a new form of radiant cooling that uses a transparent, infrared membrane:
“Radiant cooling has typically been limited by the dewpoint temperature—condensation forms on surfaces below the dewpoint, which damages materials and causes corrosion,” Braham observes. “With recent developments in technology and building materials science, we can circumvent that by overlaying a film to create an air barrier, and we can then drop the temperature much lower, cooling individuals directly with the cooled surfaces without cooling or dehumidifying the air.” The result: the same process used by outdoor radiant heaters at restaurants can be used to allow people to sit comfortably in much cooler air.
It’s a more energy-efficient form of cooling and, for Braham, comes with a host of new and interesting design challenges.
Material Benefits
Braham works in close collaboration with materials science colleagues to research and develop new materials that, when incorporated at scale, could dramatically reshape the built environment. Topics of investigation include a coating for building exteriors that can absorb water vapor at night and then allow it to evaporate during the day, cooling the building.
The work doesn’t stop there. New products and evolving standards can also require inventive new ways to measure, gauge, and tailor their success. This is more true now than ever, as “smart houses” enter the mainstream and offer a new way of thinking about and designing residential structures. “Real intelligence begins by configuring buildings so they can effectively respond to changing conditions with shading and ventilation devices that adapt over time,” Braham notes. “Before adding a learning thermostat or responsive device, the first task is to make buildings themselves smarter in their bioclimatic abilities, embedding information to enhance their ability to respond to the climate and their occupants.”
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