Benton's Home Page

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Charles Crisp Benton
Professor of Architecture
Department of Architecture
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1800

crisp@socrates.berkeley.edu

First image from a video capture board.

BUILDING SCIENCE at UC BERKELEY

I am a Professor in the Building Science Group of the Department of Architecture at UC Berkeley. Berkeley provides a fine setting for the investigation of physical building performance. Check out our Building Science at UC Berkeley web site.

CURRICULUM MATERIALS

Most of my time is spent on the Vital Signs Curriculum Materials Project, an effort to encourage architecture students to investigate the performance of existing buildings and report their findings to others. The project's first phase, in its fifth year of six planned, is sponsored by the Energy Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and Pacific Gas & Electric.

THERMAL COMFORT RESEARCH

I'm still actively involved in thermal comfort evaluations for PG&E's Advanced Customer Technology Transfer (ACT2) Project. This project produced our Mark II Thermal Assessment Cart and its basic procedures. Thermal comfort has been a thread of research for ten years beginning with the ASHRAE RP-462 project for the development of field assessment protocols.

The Mark II Thermal Assessment Cart

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Part of my time goes to the PG&E Energy Center (PEC) in San Francisco, a technology transfer enterprise in support of energy conservation and continuing education for design professionals. One project at the PEC has been the design and construction of a heliodon - a device for studying sun and shadow using scale models. . Other activities have included the Architect's View of the Sun seminar series, a lending library of building science instruments, and daylighting model laboratory.

The PG&E Energy Center Heliodon

KITE AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

I have also posted some pages on Kite Aerial Photography (a hobby.) This is my outdoor activity of the moment - highly recommended.

A kite, a camera rig, and sample photographs

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BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

Tulane University, B. Arch., 1974
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, M. Arch. A. S., 1979

Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Architecture,
Assistant Professor of Architecture, 1980 - 1985

University of California, Berkeley, College of Environmental Design
Chair, 2000-2002
Professor of Architecture, 1997 - present
Associate Professor of Architecture, 1988 - 1997
Assistant Professor of Architecture, 1985 - 1988.

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Applied Science Division
Faculty Research Associate, 1985 - present

Registered Architect, Georgia #3280, 1977
United States Patent Des. 267,837, February 1983 for the design of a heliodon

Following an eight-year period in architectural practice, Charles Benton has devoted the last 23 years to research and teaching in the topics of Building Science. Benton is a founding member and past chairperson of the Society of Building Science Educators (SBSE) and has received extramural support for curriculum development through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Foundation. Benton has offered a series of teaching method workshops for architecture faculty through Summer Institutes sponsored by DOE and coordinated by the American Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and SBSE. More recently, Benton has served as a pedagogical consultant for the Pacific Gas & Electric Energy Center. Physical measurement exercises provide a common denominator for Benton's teaching activities.

Professor Benton's research program applies field measurement techniques to examine physical performance and occupant satisfaction in occupied buildings. This work has examined phase-change thermal storage, chilled water systems, earth-contact cooling, photovoltaic systems, daylight-following control systems, and occupant thermal comfort. In particular, Benton has conducted a multi-year investigation of lighting system performance in the nation's largest daylighted office building and developed a mobile field apparatus for the in-situ measurement of environmental variables specified by ASHRAE Standard 55-92. Benton has also contributed to instrumentation development in the Sky Simulator, Boundary-Layer Wind Tunnel, and Controlled Environment Chamber of U. C. Berkeley's Building Science Laboratory.

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COURSES TAUGHT:

Arch. 140 - Energy and Environmental Management

An undergraduate survey course addressing buildings, energy, and architectural decisionmaking. The course has two 1-1/2 hour lectures per week plus a 3-hour lab session.

Arch. 241 - Ph.D. Methods Seminar

This seminar for Ph. D. students in Building Science develops a different topical theme each semester. Depending on the interests of attending students the course is structured around teaching, research, or related topics.

Arch. 245 - Daylighting Analysis using Physical Models

Arch. 245 explores qualitative and quantitative issues in architectural daylighting using a graduate seminar format. Physical models and photography serve as vehicles for the course's eight exploratory projects.

Arch. 249X - Field Methods in Building Science

This graduate seminar, sprung from the Vital Signs Project, covers accessible methods for the field evaluation of building performance. In the course students conduct post-occupancy assessments to examine how well design intent has been realized.

Arch. 249X - Field Methods for Thermal Comfort Assesment

This graduate seminar, taught occasionally, examines a range of methods for investigating thermal comfort in existing buildings. The approaches covered have been developed in our ongoing ASHRAE-sponsored research.

Arch. 249X - Constructing Light

A graduate seminar offered for the first time Spring 1996 in collaboration with colleague Susan Ubbelohde. Constructing Light will explore the manipulation of electric light through lectures, exercises, and fixture design projects. The course will also offer field trips ranging from the remarkable electric lighting classroom at the PG&E Energy Center to test facilities at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Arch. 298 - Teaching Methods in Building Science

This is a preparatory seminar for candidates interested in serving as a Graduate Student Instructor in Arch. 140. The one-unit seminar involves a discussion of the undergraduate course's objectives and the teaching methods brought to bear in meeting them.

Benton's Home Page

URL: http://www-archusers.ced.berkeley.edu/~cris