Abstract

This thesis investigates how vernacular environmental knowledge can be integrated with contemporary building science to inform climate-responsive residential building-envelope design. In response to the limitations of standardized construction approaches across diverse climatic regions, the research proposes Radical Regionalism, a framework that combines vernacular environmental principles, passive design strategies, sustainable material selection, building-envelope science, and resilience considerations within a performance-based design methodology. A comparative climate-based modeling methodology is applied to a representative single-family residential prototype across four contrasting United States climatic contexts: Miami, Florida (hot-humid); Phoenix, Arizona (hot-dry); Boston, Massachusetts (cold-humid); and Denver, Colorado (cold-dry). Representative conventional code-minimum wall assemblies are compared with hybrid vernacular-technical assemblies developed in response to climate and façade orientation. Three hybrid wall typologies—north, south, and east–west—are developed for each climate, while north, south, east, and west orientations are evaluated independently. Climate Consultant is used to identify regional environmental conditions and passive-design priorities, and WUFI Pro 7.0 is used to evaluate transient hygrothermal behavior, including temperature, relative humidity, moisture accumulation, and drying potential. The findings demonstrate that conventional code-minimum assemblies can maintain acceptable hygrothermal performance under the modeled conditions, but code compliance alone does not necessarily represent an enclosure strategy optimized for regional climate and façade exposure. The hybrid assemblies expand the range of environmental responses through climate-specific combinations of continuous insulation, thermal mass, hygroscopic moisture buffering, vapor-open drying, ventilated rainscreens, solar control, and resilience strategies. However, the simulations do not demonstrate universal numerical superiority of every hybrid assembly over its conventional counterpart. Rather, they show that successful envelope performance depends on the coordination of material properties and heat, air, water, and vapor-control functions with specific climatic and orientation-dependent conditions. The research concludes that there is no universally optimal residential wall assembly independent of climate and orientation. Instead, Radical Regionalism is supported as a transferable design methodology in which climate and regional hazards establish environmental priorities, façade orientation refines exposure, vernacular knowledge provides regionally adapted environmental principles, contemporary building science establishes enclosure-control requirements, and performance analysis supports evaluation and refinement. The contribution of Radical Regionalism therefore lies not in prescribing a universal wall system, but in providing a structured process for deriving residential envelopes that are technically viable, environmentally responsive, resilient, and connected to the conditions of place.

Publication Date

8-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Architecture (M.Arch.)

Department, Program, or Center

Architecture, Department of

College

Golisano Institute for Sustainability

Advisor

Julius J. Chiavaroli

Advisor/Committee Member

Seth H. Holmes

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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