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This website features work from the completion of Phase 1 of the SCALES Project.

We are currently seeking partnerships for Phase 2.

SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities & Communities

  • Assignment 6

    The second week of our airflow lab focuses on airflow measurements and analysis.

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  • Assignment 5

    The goal of this assignment, the first phase of the lab project that focuses on airflows and building ventilation, is to design, construct in model form, and test an enclosure (partial or full) for a typical balcony for a Chinese apartment. The motivation for this work is to propose feasible designs for Chinese residential buildings that are thermally comfortable and use a minimal amount of energy.

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  • Assignment 4

    The fourth and last phase of our first lab consists of the following: 

    1. Download data from your second test period, which should be a week long and a minimum of six days. 
    2. Compare your measured data with an after-the-fact prediction made with measured outdoor temperature and solar radiation. 
    3. Adapt the provided Matlab .m file to accurately simulate your elf house. 
    4. Prepare a 10-minute presentation for lab next week to describe your work, which should include all data and as much analysis as you have been able to perform. No need to cover Mr. Potato Head. No late presentations, please!
    5. Prepare a written lab report using the provided checklist and submit the report in lab in two weeks. 
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  • Assignment 3

    The third phase of our first lab consists of six parts: 

    1. Submit your estimate of your elf-house temperatures for the first test period.
    2. Download data.
    3. Modify your elf house as needed to keep the indoor temperature closer to the target value of 20°C. 
    4. Re-install the Hobo loggers and again deploy your house on the roof.
    5. Estimate the impact of solar energy absorbed on walls and the roof.  
    6. Use Solar Calculator 2 to design a full-size dwelling (single room is fine), subject to the same goal of a constant 20°C indoor temperature under February weather. 
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  • Assignment 2

    The second phase of our first lab consists of three parts: 

    1.  Please calculate the thermal time constant, in minutes, from your experimental data, using the three methods to be given in lab this week.
    2. Construction of solar building. Please complete the construction of your solar building, using the design specifications given in lab last week.
    3. Estimation of air temperature inside your house.
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  • Assignment 1

    While you are free to construct your house entirely on the basis of your design and modeling skills and your physical intuition, please consider making use of provided software to guide you in choices about windows and insulation. We will use several versions of this software throughout the lab to compare prediction with performance. The elf house should be ready next week to be placed on the roof for an initial, one-week test period. Please come to lab next week prepared to finish the construction during the first half of our session. We’ll then activate and insert the temperature loggers and place the houses on the roof . We’ll also work with the data from the potatoes and continue to work with the software. 

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  • Artifacts, Layers, Traces, and Trends

    Now the objective is to find traces of these changes present in the current environment and to interpret their significance. Many of you were attracted to your site because of some anomalous features that puzzled you and made you wonder why they were there and what had caused them to be. This is an opportunity to explore some answers to such puzzles.

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  • Your Site through Time

    This is the third part of a four-part, semester-long project. The first part consisted of finding a site; the second, to find evidence of its environmental history and ongoing natural processes. Now the task is to trace changes on your site over time by comparing its character at several points in time, using maps. You may find different kinds of changes: Land use, density of settlement, additions to buildings, ownership, transportation. The types of sources you will find helpful are historical maps, especially nineteenth and twentieth-century atlases, and may also include plans, prints, and photographs. 

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  • Your Site and Natural Processes

    This is the second part of a four-part, semester-long project. The first part consisted of finding a site. Now the task is to find evidence on your site of its environmental history and ongoing natural processes. The objective, through the examination of your site and its context, is to explore how natural processes shape cities.

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  • Select a Site

    In 2016, MIT will celebrate the hundredth anniversary of its move from Boston's Back Bay to the current location in Cambridge. To honor that occasion, this year the class will focus on MIT's former and current neighborhoods, so you should select a site within the designated boundaries in Cambridge or the Back Bay. The site should be between four and eight blocks. Ideally, it should include more than one type of land use. And it should be a place that intrigues you. Reflect on why it interests you, why you are drawn to it. What questions does the place raise, for which you hope to find answers this semester?

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Notice something that doesn’t seem right? Want to make a suggestion or provide feedback about how something is classified? 
Please reach out to esi [at] mit.edu and include SCALES Website in the subject of your email.
Feedback and any actions taken with regards to the feedback, will be shared as they are addressed.