Westford Symposium XXVI - August 5, 6, and 7, 2024

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I would like to invite you to the twenty-sixth Westford Symposium on Building Science. In continuing with past tradition, “building science summer camp” features intensive discussions on building science in both a formal and informal setting.

Westford XXVI – features numerous presenters/facilitators. Also in keeping with tradition the lead presenter/facilitator for each of the subject areas is one of the foremost practitioners in the subject area.

Course Dates

Monday, August 5 through Wednesday, August 7, 2024.

Course Outline

Presentations begin each day at 8:30 am
Lunch will be provided each day between 12 noon and 1:00 pm
Presentations will end Monday and Tuesday at around 4:00 pm
Symposium will close Wednesday at 3:00 pm

Agenda

Monday AM Session

8:30 am to 10:00 am
Hartwig Kunzel
“Lessons From 70 Years Of Building Science Field Investigations”
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kunzel is the Head of Department, Hygrothermics, Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, Germany. To say he is a legend is an understatement. He is the "godfather" of WUFI "Warme Und Feuchte Instationar"...Hartwig will present on face seal stucco and coating systems, IR-reflective facades, impact of vapor diffusion in fibrous and foam insulation, the hygrothermal behavior of assemblies...and anything else he feels like talking about.


MORNING BREAK 10:00 AM TO 10:30 AM

10:30 am to 12:00 noon
Brian Hubbs
“Forensic Engineering Of Building Enclosures and Facades”
Brian Hubbs, P.Eng. is a pioneer in investigating and explaining the causes of failures and how to fix them. Brian points out that it is both an art and a science...that it involves multivariable analysis to eliminate things that are not contributing to the failure and narrowing in on the contributory failure mechanisms. Brian is the "H" in RDH Building Science and one of the best "facadists" around. He is a graduate from the University of Waterloo.


LUNCH 12:00 NOON TO 1:00 PM

Monday PM Session

1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Foster Lyons
“Adhesion”
Foster Lyons is a chemical engineer, builder and building science consultant to architects. Foster points out that there is not a single structure, in the history of structures, that does not have something adhered to something else. Yet, adhesion is a topic fraught with misunderstanding and misconception. Why is it so hard to break concrete but so easy for stones to fall off walls?


AFTERNOON BREAK 2:30 PM TO 3:00 PM

3:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Tessa Bradley
“Not Being Passive About Passive House”
Tessa Bradley is a principal of the Artisans Group, Olympia, WA. The Artisans Group combines building science and elegant design. Tessa will present on low-carbon solutions, energy efficiency, net-zero Passive House designs and retrofits.

4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Adam Broderick
Aaron Grin

“MgO - Magnesium Oxide Sheathing Panels - no sweat..sweet”
Adam Broderick is a Research Scientist and Aaron Grin is Global Residential
Applications Technology Leader - both with DuPont Building Solutions. Is MgO a game
changer? It had issues in the past. Not any more. They will cover test huts,
environmental chambers and “sweating” boards in Denmark.

Tuesday AM Session

8:30 am to 10:00 am
Marc Rosenbaum
“Thermal Energy Storage In High Performance Buildings”
Marc Rosenbaum, P.E., received a BS and MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the Founder and Principal of Energysmiths and built his first superinsulated house in 1978. Marc will discuss how energy storage both thermal and electrical aids grid penetration of renewables and builds resilience on-site. Mass...not the state...time constants and hydronic storage will be discussed.


MORNING BREAK 10:00 AM TO 10:30 AM

10:30 am to 12:00 noon
Kent Browning
“Conservation Of Mass and Other Crazy Ideas”
Kent Browning, PE is a principal of KWR Engineering Services, Austin, TX and has been commissioning buildings before commissioning buildings was called commissioning buildings. Kent keeps seeing the same kind of problems over and over again. He has several guidelines that general contractors and normal folks can use to indicate if a building will have issues. Kent promises not to charge a commission for this information...


LUNCH 12:00 NOON TO 1:00 PM

Tuesday PM Session 

1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Bruce Harley
“Load-Based Testing Of Heat Pump”
Bruce Harley has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and was the technical director of the Conservation Services Group for many years. Most of his recent work is related to heat pumps. He points out that heat pumps can accomplish a lot, but there are many potential pitfalls; we need to get it right and avoid a "heat pump gate"...


AFTERNOON BREAK 2:30 PM TO 3:00 PM

3:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Steve Baczek
“The Graphic Language of Drawings”
Steve Baczek is an architect who understands communication, communication, and communication. Did I mention communication? The communication is verbal, graphical, artistic and sometimes "telepathic". There is a beauty in the details. Also note that sometimes the devil is in the details.

Wednesday AM Session

8:30 am to 10:00 am
Andrew Steingiser
“Passive House and The Shifting Energy Landscape”
Andrew is an architect with RDH in Boston and a graduate of the School of Architecture at Syracuse University. As Passive House is applied to multi-family buildings things get interesting...that is an understatement...there is more...wait till we look at schools...Phius and TEDI do not always get along...Andrew will help put things in focus...


MORNING BREAK 10:00 AM TO 10:30 AM

10:30 am to 12:00 noon
Julie Klump
“Saving Affordable Homes”
Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) is a nonprofit developer, owner and operator of 20,000 affordable homes in multifamily buildings in twelve states and the District of Columbia. Julie is an architect and Vice President of Design and Building Performance for POAH. She has been involved in the retrofit and rehabilitation of thousands of existing homes and multifamily buildings and the design and construction of thousands of new affordable homes and multifamily buildings. Julie will discuss lessons learned and how to preserve affordability through high performance.


LUNCH 12:00 NOON TO 1:00 PM

Wednesday PM Session 

1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Duncan Prahl
"Passive-Regressive: Tales from the CUNY Building Performance Lab"
Duncan Prahl is an architect and the Director of Technical Services at the CUNY Building Performance Lab. He will share research projects and results conducted by the team at CUNY BPL...such as how well do those thousands of buildings in NYC actually perform and are those energy audits in NYC actually leading to any retrofits?

Closing Presentation:
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Keith Simon
"10-Year, 100-Year and 1,000 Year Buildings"
Keith Simon, FAIA is an architect, VP of Design Phase Services for Salas O'Brien, and adjunct faculty at the UT-Austin School of Architecture. He has some thoughts on how to design buildings to last for an extremely long period of time. As a Fellow of the AIA, he has some strong opinions on some of the priorities of architectural firms and architectural schools.