Journal of Architectural Engineering

Seismic loads pose a great risk to existing masonry buildings. Modern seismic control methods that are being increasingly used today, rather than various traditional strengthening methods, appear in the retrofit of existing masonry structures. The use of seismic control in existing masonry buildings increases the functionality of the building and obviates the need for additional structural requirements. Particularly, seismic control methods are superior because they contain the least possible interventions to architectural details. On the other hand, these methods are a unique option in sensitive structures such as historical masonry structures. In this research, base isolation systems, energy-damping systems, and hybrid systems as well as architectural application details of seismic control methods in masonry structures are discussed in the context of architectural details.

Reducing carbon emissions in the construction sector is essential in a period of climate emergency. Disassembly and reuse of structural members are considered to reduce the carbon emissions from the construction and deconstruction of buildings. In this context, it is important to review the current state of the art to provide a framework for the development of future structural systems that can enable the easy disassembly and reuse of steel-framed buildings. This paper (1) presents a review of more than 100 documents to discuss the feasibility of disassembly and reuse of structural members; (2) develops detailed schematic illustrations to explain the design concepts and the underlying mechanics governing the behavior of demountable connections; (3) sheds lights on the technical and design challenges to implement disassembly and reuse of the structural members; and (4) defines future research needs to facilitate the disassembly and reuse of the structural members.

Green roofs (GRs) are one of the best practices that researchers are promoting due to environmental, social, economic, and ecological benefits. This bibliometric review on GRs performs a comprehensive evaluation where shortlisted studies are categorized into empirical and nonempirical. A review of the nonempirical studies affirms the importance of GRs, and the appraisal of the empirical studies helps understand the performance evaluation methods. The performance of GRs largely depends on the overall assembly configuration, especially the vegetation and substrate layers, along with the site and settings. Such studies are conducted through field and laboratory experiments, simulation modeling, mathematical models, or combination methods. These methods help understand the thermal, hydrological and energy performance, urban heat island (UHI) mitigation, noise reduction, air pollution reduction, sustainability, and retrofitting potentials of GRs. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the performance evaluation methods to understand their association with performance parameters and variables. This will help identify an effective performance evaluation method for an inclusive evaluation of any GR assembly.

Building geometrical features have a significant effect on the local wind environment. The presented study investigated the impact of building perforation design geometrical features on mean wind speed around the vicinity of the building and the indoor environment for generic midrise buildings. The study focused on purpose-built perforation designs for wind permeability in naturally ventilated buildings. A lattice Boltzmann method simulation was conducted to evaluate the impact of perforation profile and draft angle. The influence of wind conditions such as wind speed and wind direction was taken into account in the study. The results indicated that the geometrical features of the perforation design can significantly affect the mean wind speed around the building vicinity and inside the building. The surrounding mean wind speed showed 6.75% and 7.25% differences from the baseline model for square and circular perforation profiles, respectively. The change in the perforation profile draft angle led to a 6.2% change in the mean wind speed. The major wind speed changes occurred in the indoor space. This finding can be used when selecting and designing building perforations for better natural ventilation performance, air quality, and wind comfort.

An integrated strategy for the assessment of structural and thermal performance of masonry walls when retrofitted using textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) and TRC sandwich panels is devised. Three popularly used walling solutions viz. clay brick masonry, hollow concrete block, and autoclaved aerated concrete block were considered for retrofitting masonry walls. Retrofit was carried out using virgin TRC panels and also with TRC panels sandwiched with gypsum and calcium silicate panels for improved thermal performance. The structural capacity is estimated using the equivalent strut approach and thermal performance parameters are calculated from thermal analysis using the finite-element method. The integrated methodology is used for arriving at a feasible retrofitting solution for desired levels of structural strengthening and thermal performance. The methodology is demonstrated with a typical retrofitting of a masonry structure placed in the representative seismic zone with peak ground acceleration of 0.36 g and for two of the climate zones. From the investigations, it is observed that the type of retrofit system for a masonry wall that has to be adopted for enhancement in thermal comfort is very much dependent on the climatic zone, the thickness of the panel, and the choice of insulating material. The integrated methodology can be a very helpful tool for designers to arrive at the optimal retrofitting configuration for desired structural and thermal performance of the structure.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have recently become popular in building façade inspections to maintain a safe and well-performed built environment. A camera-equipped UAV system can capture numerous high-resolution façade images for close-up visual inspections. However, in several cases, the multispectrum and spatiotemporal data collected by UAVs are not systematically documented and utilized, which obstructs the automation in the identification, localization, assessment, and tracking of façade anomalies. This paper develops an integrated, computational GIS-based information system to provide automated storage, retrieval, detection, assessment, and documentation of façade anomalies based on UAV-captured data. The developed system creates user-friendly access to diverse professional imagery analysis tools from external artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. A real-world case was studied to present the procedure and advances in the management and analysis of multisourced inspection data to automate UAV-based façade diagnosis. As a result, the proposed method facilitates the seamless fusion, processing, visualization, and documentation of multimodal inspection data, resulting in convenient analysis with discrepancies measured in decimeters for length, millimeters for width, and centimeters for geoposition. This contributes to the understanding of façade conditions and decision-making of timely maintenance throughout a building’s service lifecycle.

Designing buildings is a multicriteria decision-making process that usually involves a large number of design parameters and several objective functions. The associated combinatorial parametric sensitivity analysis requires numerous simulation runs, which might not be practical, feasible, or both. The parameters related to the design of buildings include geometry and envelope characteristics, uncertainty in internal loads, different HVAC system characteristics, and utility rate structures. A new methodology is proposed that involves three stages: (1) an initial one-factor-at-a-time (OAT) statistical method (Morris method), which is very efficient when identifying the relative importance and interactivity of parameters; (2) the use of parallel coordinates and other graphical plots to help visualize ascertained allowable latitude of parameters dynamically and interactively; and (3) the use of a machine learning algorithm [specifically, artificial neural networks (ANN)] to include the improved granular domain of parameters. This results in more flexibility when exploring the design space and reducing the number of computationally intensive simulation runs without compromising the mathematical resolution and accuracy. The method would empower designers to explicitly analyze the impacts of all major influencing input parameters while providing flexibility to posit different constraints on selected parameters and visualize their interaction with other parameters. In addition, it has advantages over traditional optimization approaches since decisions can be made by assessing and controlling one or more objective functions (response variables or evaluation criteria) and input parameters simultaneously under preset bounds. This is especially useful when there are multiple objective functions that are conflicting. The various stages of the proposed methodology are demonstrated through a hypothetical building design study.

Abstract

This paper presents a study where thermal heat transfer simulations were used to evaluate the potential for condensation among 11 different window systems, ranked by their respective heat transfer coefficients (U-factors) and condensation resistance (CR) rating values. The objectives were to determine exterior environmental conditions under which condensation would occur, to measure the extents of condensation, to compare the extents of condensation among the analyzed window systems, and to evaluate relationships of condensation potential with the ascribed U-factor and CR values. Using THERM software (version 7.7), temperature distribution within the head, jamb, and sill window detail conditions were simulated and the lowest temperatures along the interior surfaces of analyzed window systems were recorded and analyzed for linear extents and location of condensation. Results demonstrate that the conditions under which condensation occurs and the extents of condensation on window surfaces are not driven by the U-factor or CR values, but rather by the individual performance of each window system component (frame, glass, and spacer) and their material properties.

Practical Applications

This paper evaluates the potential for condensation among 11 different window systems, ranked by their respective thermal performance indicators, the heat transfer coefficients (U-factors), and their condensation resistance indicators, also known as the condensation resistance (CR) rating values. The goal was to assess the relationships of condensation with both the U-factor and CR values, to provide a visual understanding of what the CR values mean for selection of fenestration systems, and to provide a framework for preventing condensation. The overall results demonstrate that condensation potential and condensation extents are not only driven by the U-factor and the CR value, as presumed in conventional practice, but by the individualized performance of a specific combination of window components (frame, glass, and spacer), as the lowest-performing component drives condensation.

The concept of lean originated with the Toyota Production System, but the idea of applying lean to renovation is relatively unknown. Previous studies have predominately focused on waste elimination or on achieving efficiency by applying particular lean practices in renovation projects; however, there is a lack of a framework that would address the lean implementation, and this is a clear gap in the research. This study aims to examine the applicability of the 14 lean management principles (LMPs) to renovation projects. To achieve this aim, we adopted a quantitative approach using a survey, which focuses on linking LMPs to the operation and management of renovation processes. This study sampled 67 renovation professionals in Singapore’s renovation sector. The research findings revealed that the renovation contractors perceived manpower challenges as more significant than iron-triangle metrics. The findings also revealed isolated practice of LMPs by survey respondents, although with minimal knowledge and awareness of lean. The findings showed that the renovation companies have adopted those LMPs related to people and problem-solving lean management principles and regard them as important principles. In contrast, respondents perceived several process-oriented LMPs, such as pull and level-out workload, as less important. This isolated implementation suggests the relevance of LMPs to the renovation sector because some principles were already practiced, which would imply that the potential benefits of lean seen in other industries could be fully realized through the broader implementation of the 14 LMPs. The study contributes to the research in renovation by emphasizing the importance of lean thinking in the delivery of renovation projects, and it also contributes to the existing body of knowledge on lean in renovation by introducing the LMP as a holistic framework, rather than focusing on the lean toolbox.

Assessing the probability of failure of typically adopted cover depths to resist the onset of carbonation-induced corrosion under the influence of seasonal rains is important for the durability design of reinforced concrete elements. The exposure scenario commonly manifests in the tropics, wherein the majority of monsoonal rainfall remains confined to location-specific annual wet-spells. The study aimed to develop an improved methodology for the identification of annual wet-spell and proposed an index based on the judicious combination of wet-spell characteristics to enable the mapping of its severity over a region of interest and facilitate the selection of Moisture Reference Years (MRYs). The developed paradigm was implemented using gridded meteorological data sets to map the severity of annual wet-spell at 1° resolution for India. The map provides an improved severity classification compared to rainfall amount over regions of scanty rain but considerable wet-spell duration. The estimates of time conducive for carbonation over a period of 100 successive MRYs, as deduced from the simulated moisture distribution data for the five climatic zones of India, were also found to correlate well with the corresponding index values. Finally, the $\surd t$ modeling of the carbonation depth using the derived estimates of conducive duration and assessment of failure probabilities of typical cover depths suggested that a nominal depth of 45 mm is able to resist carbonation at a safety level of 90% for all the five climatic zones.

Numerous benefits are delivered by the utilization of volumetric modular construction (VMC); however, it carries unique risks at different project stages, which is one of the significant reasons for its low adoption. To date, scant research has adequately examined VMC’s risks during projects. This study aims to address this knowledge gap by identifying and assessing critical risk factors (CRFs) within VMC from different stakeholder group perspectives in Australia and New Zealand (NZ). A survey of 110 VMC professionals from Australia and NZ, which examined 31 specific CRFs, was established via a literature review. The CRFs were divided into their associated VMC project stage: (1) design and planning (DP); (2) off-site manufacturing (OM); (3) transport and logistics (TL); and (4) on-site assembly (OA). Fault tree analysis (FTA) was then used to analyze the CRFs. The results indicate that the DP stage risks are the most significant since they could affect VMC's downstream stages. Essential CRFs at each stage were design freeze or change order issues, module geometry conflicts, size and weight restrictions, and dimensional and geometrical variabilities. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents a first attempt at analyzing VMC CRFs in the Australian and NZ construction industry. Overall, this study could contribute to enhancing VMC practices and furthering VMC's adoption as a sustainable and circular construction practice.

Abstract

Residential skyscrapers (RSs) are very relevant to all aspects of sustainable development as an integral component of urban development. The need for high-rise buildings was first identified in Chicago in the later part of the nineteenth century. Today, more and more skyscrapers are being built to accommodate occupants in the small available land plots in the world’s megacities. In this paper, following the review of previous studies, a series of effective indicators are prioritized so that a model for the investigation of the sustainability performance in RSs that is related to the three aspects of sustainability is presented. The RSs should be designed to respond to different requirements during their life cycle, which includes environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainable development in the initial design that results in a higher quality of life in the RSs. The method used in this paper is a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) method for sustainability assessment and the integrated value model for sustainable assessment (MIVES). Nine RSs as case studies have been evaluated in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Based on the multicriteria model used in this paper, the analyzed RSs in Dubai, UAE, have a sustainability performance in the range of 0.29 < SI < 0.62, where SI is the sustainability index.

Practical Applications

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the residential skyscraper’s (RSs) sustainability based on the integrated value model for sustainable assessment (MIVES), which is a decision-making approach. For the literature review, no high-rise building design and construction studies cover all the pillars of sustainability. Therefore, nine case studies were chosen in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and these were evaluated with the MIVES approach. The MIVES integrates three sustainability requirements (environmental, economic, and social), which use the concept of value functions and indicators based on the weight assignment. The formulas for the sustainability index (SI) were defined in this model. Each of these case studies has been quantitatively assessed, and the degree of sustainability of each tower was determined. All these data and results provided a framework and reference to establish a minimum SI that future RSs that are constructed in Dubai, UAE, should achieve. In addition, the evaluation of RSs might be reviewed from other dimensions of sustainability, for example, landscapes for the design of outdoor spaces.

Abstract

Traditional wisdom has dictated that in the Northern Hemisphere, residential rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems should be facing true south when possible to maximize energy production. However, an abundance of south-facing PV systems in communities generating power simultaneously at peak solar times has caused excessive reverse power flows which introduce multiple challenges within the broader power grid. At the aggregate level, this has caused sharp ramps in generation at sunrise and sunset, created challenges for grid reliability, and introduced local grid issues like voltage spikes. As a result, utilities have begun to reduce payments to customers for feeding solar generation back to the grid, moving away from so-called net-metering schemes. This has incentivized west-facing solar panels to better overlap with typical residential demand, reducing reverse flows, but it remains unclear as to how best to choose orientation of panels to achieve community-level goals like self-reliance (e.g., in the case of a microgrid) while minimizing the amount of battery capacity required. In this paper, we consider a community-level design problem for the optimal placement of residential rooftop solar panels considering different home designs and demand patterns. We develop a flexible simulation testbed that solves a mixed-integer linear optimization problem to determine, given a particular community-level objective, the orientation of panel placement within the restrictions of roof geometry and space. The results indicate that optimal placement can help a community maximize self-consumption, facilitating a transition to subhourly net-zero energy goals and reducing the need for energy storage.

Practical Applications

The following paper includes a novel optimization objective for designing solar panel installations. Whereas historically solar installers have emphasized maximization of solar power generation, utilities have begun to push back on excess power production from so-called prosumers (customers who also generate power) during peak solar production hours. Our proposed objective is to maximize the amount of usable solar power rather than the potential solar power. Solar power that is temporally offset from the conventional south-facing peak production can lessen the impacts of ramp down and ramp up periods. The models presented in this paper result in an optimal ratio of solar panel orientation for a given demand profile and location. We suggest that developers use this information to create a temporally robust solar generation profile in the community. The existing (or designed) roof profiles of a community can be input to the optimization constraints with a limited number of solar panels. The resulting profile assists in reducing the need for rapid ramp up and ramp down capacity as well as reducing battery storage capacity in the event that the community operates in an islanded microgrid mode.

Abstract

This paper sheds light on civil facilities that are home to the underrepresented and overlooked population with mental illnesses. More specifically, this paper examines the primary architectural engineering features of psychiatric hospitals from the lens of fire hazards. Psychiatric hospitals rose in popularity in the nineteenth century for individuals deemed unfit to live with the sane population. While they began with good intentions, these hospitals came to represent practices and poor living conditions for mentally ill patients. These conditions, when combined with a wide variety of mental illnesses, resulted in increased risks. One of the most significant risks in psychiatric hospitals was fire—with nearly all psychiatric hospitals examined herein experiencing at least one structural fire despite premier fire control inclusions. A brief history of psychiatric hospitals is presented first, followed by a discussion on various aspects of structural fire design. Then, an analysis of structural fires in psychiatric hospitals throughout the world is performed, and three general and common fire causes and mitigation strategies are presented. Perhaps current and future professionals can better mitigate fire risk in healthcare design by understanding where past architects and designers lacked in designs for vulnerable populations.

Practical Applications

This paper examines an often overlooked portion of the world’s mental health history by shedding light on one of the most significant risks associated with nineteenth- and twentieth-century psychiatric hospitals: fire. A brief introduction to historic mental health facilities and their populations is presented first, followed by a discussion on fire control methods of the past. Then, seven prominent facilities, or asylums, with a history of fire are analyzed for cause and mitigation strategies. As a result, three prominent contributions are discussed and include architectural and structural design, fire mitigation methods, and population characteristics. The goal of this analysis is to increase awareness of the many and broad vulnerabilities of populations (past and present) such as the mentally ill when placed in care facilities. Perhaps current and future professionals can better mitigate fire risk in healthcare design by understanding where past architects and designers lacked in designs for such people.

Supporting aging adults who wish to maintain their independence and stay in their homes is becoming an increasingly prevalent issue in the United States and worldwide. Aging-in-place is a popular term in aging literature, defined as one’s ability to live as they possibly can, confidently and independently, in their private home. However, current housing design and construction considerations for aging adults are typically limited to projects specifically catering to retirement or senior communities, focusing primarily on physical accessibility. There is insufficient research or application addressing the cognitive and physical aspects of aging in residential design, construction, and operation despite the growing emphasis on smart buildings. To examine the current housing options for aging adults in the United States, this case study offerred a comprehensive comparison of two residential units in terms of internal spatial features, design, and construction costs. One unit adheres to the requirements outlined in the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, targeting individuals aged 55 and above. The other unit, with comparable dimensions, lacks the same emphasis on accommodating aging individuals. Both housing units were developed and budgeted in Lawrenceville, Georgia, in March 2021. By examining floor plans, accessibility, building systems, and costs associated with these two units, it was found that the construction cost of the housing designed for 55 years and older was 35% greater than the comparable project. The major contributor to the cost difference was the restriction of designing an accessible living space on one level rather than features that support aging. Hence, this paper provides a suggested range of current smart trends, home sensors, and aging-friendly features that cater to the various physical, cognitive, and social/psychological needs of aging adults. This research highlights the pressing need for comprehensive housing design and construction strategies that consider cognitive aging alongside physical aging.

Abstract

To effectively reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in buildings, there is a need for a robust basis for measuring greenhouse gas emissions associated with the built environment. The conventional method to measure greenhouse gas emissions is based on global warming potential. However, global warming potential depends on erratic factors such as timeframe, location, and absorption rate, which, in turn, leads to unreliable metrics for greenhouse gas emissions.This study proposed an exergy-based metric to measure greenhouse gas emissions to eliminate the weakness. The proposed metric was developed using the cumulative exergy demand method based on standard chemical exergy of substances and is applied to a case study building. The major findings indicated that the exergy-based greenhouse gas metric is more robust and consistent than the conventional global warming potential (GWP)-based metric by eliminating the erratic factors, providing absolute values, obtaining a single objective function for environmental impact potential, and enabling indexing of values to assess environmental sustainability.

Practical Applications

This research explored the development of a metric based on analysis of energy quality for a robust, consistent, and comparative measurement of the environmental impacts of greenhouse gases emitted during an assumed life cycle (75 years) of a building. The results showed that an objective comparative value of the environmental impact of a building and/or its products can be obtained by unit mass/weight value if the energy demand data are unknown and by absolute mass/weight if the energy demand data are known. In any case, the environmental impacts between buildings or building products can objectively be compared. Practitioners can utilize the method or its results in indexing or benchmarking buildings for building environmental sustainability ratings using units such as per life span, area, and occupants. Standardized indices can be developed into a computer-aided tool for policy making and regulation of both existing and new buildings in terms of their environmental sustainability. The current global awareness about climate change and the environmental impact of human activities on the ecosystem makes this study even more relevant.

The estimation of construction quantities is a critical aspect of any construction project, and accuracy in the quantity takeoff (QTO) process is an integral part in achieving project success. Accuracy can be improved by automating the QTO process. However, one of the gaps in automated QTO is found to be the lack of a platform-ignorant computing algorithm regarding different building information modeling (BIM) authoring tools. Available BIM-based commercial cost estimation software programs such as Autodesk Naviswork, Autodesk QTO, iTWO CostX, Innovaya Visual QTO, ConstrucSim, and so forth, are limited in terms of full automation, largely because full interoperability across all the different applications has not yet been achieved. This paper explores interoperable QTO algorithms using industry foundation classes (IFC)-based BIM. To evaluate the IFC-based QTO algorithms, a case study was conducted on a residential development project in Kalamazoo, MI. Comparing with commercial software used in practice, the IFC-based QTO algorithms showed consistent results, whereas were more powerful regarding their independence from BIM authoring tools in extracting the volumetric and areal quantities of building components. The IFC-based QTO algorithms processed the different types of building element configurations in the residential development project smoothly. Furthermore, the QTO algorithms are expected to reduce the manual input required in generating QTO through interfacing with IFC data which is the ISO international standard for BIM.

The United Arab Emirates has adopted environmental sustainability agendas for urban development and housing levels. In response, the urban design of public housing has been transformed from a low-rise urban sprawl housing typology into more compact urban forms and recently into vertical urban forms. While the social aspects related to Emirati families have been carefully preserved in the designs of all these public housing typologies, the environmental sustainability aspects have not been rigorously assessed in these designs, especially at the urban scale. To address this, this study was aimed at assessing the energy and ecological performance of a recent pioneering vertical public housing project in comparison with two case studies representing the most-compact low-rise urban form and the conventional low-rise urban sprawl public housing. The assessments of the three cases were compared with local benchmarks to evaluate how close their environmental performance was to these benchmarks, especially for the vertical housing design. As for the research method, these assessments were performed by calculating the expected average annual operational energy and embodied environmental impacts using the Urban Modeling Interface design tool for reliable simulations. The simulation results for the three urban housing case studies revealed that the average annual operational energy per square meter [energy use intensity (EUI)] for the pioneering vertical housing project, with its high urban compactness floor-area ratio (FAR) of 1.34, reached 104 kWh/m². By comparison, the most-compact form of low-rise urban public housing, with a FAR of 0.41, had an EUI value of about 120 kWh/m², with the urban sprawl case study having an EUI value of about 157 kWh/m². The estimated average total embodied energy per square meter over 50 years was 1,070.79 kWh/m² in the vertical residential building, a decrease from the 1,331 kWh/m² for the compact low-rise housing and the much higher 1,527.67 kWh/m² for the urban sprawl public housing. In addition, the recorded average annual carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions per square meter over 50 years significantly decreased, from 147.37 kgCO₂/m² in the conventional urban sprawl and 129.83 kgCO₂/m² in the compact low-rise housing to only 105.35 kgCO₂/m² in the vertical public housing project. Despite the notable enhancement in energy performance in the vertical public housing when compared with the low-rise urban forms, there is still a desperate need for more-efficient and sustainable design strategies for the vertical public housing typology to make it comply with the local benchmark for sustainable residential buildings.

Abstract

Fire/smoke barriers are designed to isolate building spaces into manageable compartments that resist the spread of fire and/or smoke, but there are situations in which these life-safety barriers are purposely compromised. Firestopping is a construction and postconstruction activity used to maintain the integrity of fire/smoke barriers. The activity of firestopping is typically the responsibility of either the contractor(s) that caused the penetration or a designated specialty contractor whose primary project function is to monitor and remediate barrier penetrations. There has been limited research on the classification and/or quantity of penetrations that are typically installed in the built environment. This case study collected data from the construction of two separate healthcare construction projects along Colorado's Front Range. Results of this case study across both buildings showed that the majority of penetrations were the results of electrical/low-voltage scopes of work, followed by plumbing, mechanical, fire, structural, and pneumatic tube system penetrations.

Practical Applications

Life-safety barriers are common in certain building types, and penetrating these barriers is often necessary. This paper provided a method and classification for penetrations of these barriers. Being able to classify the type of penetration and responsible party allows contractors and designers the ability to manage the mitigation efforts. This process also provides a benchmark for owners and designers to quantify the impact of barrier penetrations on building design and maintenance requirements. This may result in building designs that minimize the number of penetrations and provide access areas for building operators to easily inspect and maintain these penetrations.

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in kinetic systems made with smart materials that can adapt to changing environmental conditions. This paper describes design research to develop and improve the design of a holder unit that is the basic component of a kinetic bistable shading system. The holder comprises four bistable flaps and linear actuators with shape memory alloy (SMA) springs. The linear actuators force the bistable flaps to snap into their opened and closed positions. Two experimental studies were conducted: (1) a study to find an adequate SMA and biasing springs combination for a linear actuator; and (2) a shape optimization study. The first study aimed to find an adequate configuration for the linear actuator, which has both SMA and biasing springs. In the study, data obtained by image analysis were analyzed statistically to understand which combination of SMA and biasing springs resulted in the largest displacement. The second study used topology optimization to obtain a 25% reduction in the total volume of the holder unit compared to the initial design, resulting in a lighter kinetic structure. The paper describes the two studies conducted, highlighting the resulting improvements in the holder unit for the kinetic screen.