Developing a perfectly energy-efficient building is relatively easy to do—if you don’t give the building’s occupants any control over their environment. Since nobody wants that kind of building, Professor Christoph Reinhart has focused his career on finding ways to make buildings more energy-efficient while keeping user needs in mind.
“在设计建筑物的这一点上，最大的不确定性来自用户行为，” MIT建筑部可持续设计实验室负责人的Reinhart说。“一旦您了解热流，就可以看到一门非常精确的科学，可以看到从空间中增加或取多少热量。”
赖因哈特（Reinhart）受过物理学的培训，是因为他想运用他学会的科学概念，以使建筑物更加舒适和节能。如今，他以建筑师所谓的“日光”（使用自然光来照亮建筑室内装饰和城市级环境建筑绩效分析）的工作而闻名。从他的实验室出现的设计工具被90多个国家 /地区的建筑师和城市规划师使用。
可持续设计实验室的工作还生产了两家衍生公司：Mapdwell，该公司为安装太阳能电池板提供个性化的成本效益分析；和SOLEMMA，它提供了环境分析工具，例如Diva-for-rhino，这是一种高度优化的日光和能源建模软件组件。莱因哈特（Reinhart）是Mapdwell的联合创始人和战略发展顾问，他是Solemma的首席执行官。
Through it all, physics has remained a central underpinning. “Everything our lab develops is based on physics first,” says Reinhart, who earned master’s degrees in physics from Albert Ludwigs Universität in Freiburg, Germany, and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.
信息设计
莱因哈特（Reinhart）是一生的环保主义者，他受到启发，部分受到弗劳恩霍夫（Fraunhofer）太阳能系统研究所的工作，该研究所于1990年代初在弗里堡（Freiburg）建造了一座完全自给自足的太阳能房屋。
While finishing his master’s thesis, Reinhart says, he also read an article that suggested that features such as color can be more important than performance to architects choosing a solar system—an idea that drove him to find ways to empower architects to consider aesthetics and the environmental performance of their designs at the same time. He began this effort by investigating daylighting at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
从设计的角度来看，灯光非常重要，即关于“光线绘画”的话题，但是照明涉及的技术挑战也涉及重大的技术挑战，例如如何管理热量和眩光。
“You need good sky models and you need good rendering tools to model the light. You also need computer science to make it faster—but that’s just the basics,” Reinhart says, noting that the next step is to consider how people perceive and use natural light. “This really nuanced way of thinking is what makes daylighting so fun and interesting.”
For example, designers typically render buildings with all the blinds open. If they learn that people will keep the blinds down 90 percent of the time with a given design, they are likely to rethink it, Reinhart says, because “nobody wants that.”
Reinhart团队在1998年开发的日光分析软件仅提供了这种信息。现在被称为Daysim，现在在世界各地都用于建模建筑物和周围的年度日光可用性。
Reinhart has also published textbooks on daylighting: “Daylighting Handbook I: Fundamentals and Designing with the Sun” was published in in 2014, and a second volume, “Daylighting Handbook II: Daylight Simulations and Dynamic Facades,” was released last October.
“Daylighting was really my first way into architecture,” Reinhart says, noting that he thinks it’s wonderful that the field combines “rock solid science” like sky modeling with more subjective questions related to the users’ experience, such as: “When is sunlight a liability?” and “When does it add visual interest?”
教学和建议
在2001年获得技术大学的建筑博士学位后，赖因哈特在加拿大的麦吉尔大学短暂地任教，然后被任命为哈佛大学设计研究生院的建筑副教授。2009年，那里的学生论坛将他命名为年度最佳教职员工。
2012年，他加入了麻省理工学院的教职员工，在那里他通常监督七或八名研究生，其中大约三名在博士学位上工作。通常，他还让学生通过本科研究机会计划在实验室工作。他说，事实证明，一些专业的计算机科学专业学生特别有帮助。
他说：“ MIT学生可以实施什么真是太神奇了。”
当然，赖因哈特（Reinhart）还是一位讲师，尤其是教授4.401/4.464（建筑物中的环境技术），该教师的重点是如何评估建筑物的能源效率。
他说：“与教授这些概念相比，没有更多的乐趣，尤其是在像麻省理工学院这样的机构中。”
Mitei教育总监Antje Danielson表示，MIT Energy Initiative（Mitei）现在正在努力通过MITX在线提供该主题，并且该课程有望成为计划中的能源研究生证书的一部分。
City-scale modeling
同时，莱因哈特（Reinhart）将自己的研究扩展到了在城市一级建模能源使用。2016年，他及其同事推出了波士顿的能源模型，该模型估计了城市每栋建筑物的气体和电力需求，此后他的团队已经评估了其他城市地区。
这项工作强调了用户行为在计算能源使用方面的重要性。
莱因哈特说：“对于个人建筑物，您可以了解用户行为，但是如果您想为整个城市建模，那么这个问题就会爆炸。”他指出，他的团队使用统计方法（例如贝叶斯校准）来确定可能的行为。。
从本质上讲，他们收集有关能源使用的数据，并训练计算机以识别不同的情况，例如不同数量的人和电器使用的能量。
Reinhart说：“我们在建筑物的样本中投掷了800种用户行为，并且由于我们知道这些建筑物实际使用了多少能量，因此我们只保留这些行为模式，这些模式可为我们提供正确的能量利用。”that indicates the buildings’ most likely uses. “We don’t know exactly where people are, but at the urban level, we get it right.”
Determining how energy is being used at this broad scale provides critical information for addressing the needs of the energy system as a whole, Reinhart says. That’s why Reinhart is currently working with Exelon Corporation, a major national energy provider, to assess energy use in Chicago. “We can say, let’s foster these kinds of upgrades and pretty much guarantee that this is how the energy load throughout a neighborhood or for particular substations will change—which is just what utilities want to know,” he says.
The food-energy-water nexus
最近，莱因哈特（Reinhart）还开始研究使粮食生产更节能和可持续性的方法。他的实验室正在开发一个软件组件，可以估计食品产量，相关的能源和水的使用以及对不同类型的城市农场产生的碳排放。
For example, hydroponic container farming—a system of growing food without soil inside something like a shipping container—is now being promoted by companies in some cities, including Boston. This system typically uses more electricity than conventional farming does, but that energy use can be more than offset by the reduced need for transportation, Reinhart says. Already, Reinhart’s team has shown that rooftop and container farming on available land in Lisbon, Portugal, could theoretically meet the city’s total vegetable demand.
This work exploring the nexus between food, energy, and water is just the next level of complexity for Reinhart in a career dedicated to moving the needle on sustainability. Fortunately, he’s not alone in his work; he has sent a host of young academics out into the world to work on similar concerns.
莱因哈特（Reinhart）的前研究生现在在康奈尔（Cornell），哈佛大学（Harvard），锡拉丘兹（Syracuse）和多伦多大学（University of Toronto）等大学工作，他继续与他们合作。
It’s like having a growing family, says Reinhart, a father of two. “Students never leave. It’s like kids.”
Reinhart教授（左）和建筑研究生Hellen Rose Anyango Awino讨论了有关测量热舒适的课堂任务。学分：Kelley Travers/Mitei
Filed Under:基础设施
