The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has chosen the winners of the latest round of AIA Upjohn Research Initiative grants. 

The grants offer $15,000 to $30,000 in research support for "applied research projects that enhance the value of design and professional practice knowledge," according to the AIA website. This year's winners aim to tackle a variety of performance and sustainability-related topics, including Net Zero Energy (NZE) standards and building life cycle assessment metrics. 

A research team headed by Nina M. Sharifi, PhD of Syracuse University and Gabrielle Brainard, AIA of Pratt Institute aims to develop research titled Envelope Retrofit Guide: Net Zero Energy Ready Strategies for Existing Buildings. This project, according to the researchers, "will produce an Envelope Retrofit Guide to assist architects in the early stages of net zero ready retrofit projects." The guide will provide "technical guidance at a schematic level and will catalog retrofit strategies for mass-masonry and wood-frame buildings," the researchers explain. 

A second proposal headed by Illinois Institute of Technology-affiliated researchers Rahman Azari, PhD and Mohammad Asadi, PhD is titled Evaluation of Thermal and Energy Generation Performance of Artificial Leaf-based Façade Cladding (ALFC) Systems and will engage in "experiments to evaluate and optimize the thermal performance, energy generation, and carbon removal capabilities of artificial leaf-based façade cladding (ALFC) systems," according to a press release.  "The novelty of the optimized ALFC system," the researchers explain, "will be in offering coupled energy generation and carbon removal capabilities in a building, improved efficiency in solar-chemical energy conversion, and integration with mechanical systems."

A third team led by Malini Srivastava, AIA of the University of Minnesota has proposed Games Occupants Play: A Serious Games Approach to Reducing Energy Use and Carbon Emissions in Buildings and Cities, an investigation that "proposes overcoming barriers to reaching zero CO2 emissions by implementing a pervasive energy game that imagines a university or school building as the game board and empowers building occupants to achieve substantive energy savings as they play the game." The research will utilize game dashboards to allow gamers to "visualize and locate energy waste" while also deploying leaderboards tp "publicly compare energy savings, providing incentives to make substantive behavior shifts and implement building interventions."

Another research proposal by Vikki Lew, AIA of Design Research is titled Life Cycle Assessment: Integrating Environmental Impact Quantification in Design Process and aims to "establish a methodology to integrate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) into the architect’s design process, providing actionable feedback to improve building performance" by analyzing an office building's carbon lifecycle and energy use with regards to materials and operations. The project aims to bring together design and data to "address leveraging technology and quantitative analysis for sustainable design," according to the project text.

Lastly, a team led by Douglas Farr, FAIA of Farr Associates and Anne Evens of Elevate Energy has proposed Using Chicago’s Architecture Legacy to Teach Practicing Architects the Design Patterns that Result in Lower Energy Use, research that "seeks to provide architects with readily-applicable energy-efficient design patterns rooted in Chicago’s architectural legacy." The project will expand on the "translation of publicly-available energy performance data on larger iconic commercial buildings into educational content for architecture tour docents and exhibitions" with focuses on "building massing and height, floorplate dimension, façade transparency, and thermal bridging," among other topics. 

The research proposals were vetted by a jury that includes Jessica Sheridan, AIA (chair) of Mancini Duffy, Andrea Love, AIA of Payette, Laura Lesniewski, AIA of BNIM, Vincent Della Donna, AIA, ACHA of Vincent Della Donna Healthcare Consulting, RK Stewart, FAIA of RK Stewart Consultants, Lee Becker, FAIA of Hartman-Cox Architects, and John J. Castellana, FAIA of TMP Architecture.