Roja Rastegar

Roja is a PhD candidate at Architecture department with the background in architecture, environmental design and environmental studies. She is investigating the role of building envelope on improving the building energy consumption. Her specific focus is to analyze the envelope properties and the impact of solar-reflective exterior coatings on increasing the thermal performance of the building opaque exterior surfaces. The purpose is to understand how this approach can affect the overall annual heating and cooling energy demand for multi-family residential buildings in warm and hot climate conditions. Research includes the analysis of solar availability on building vertical and horizontal surfaces and the overshadowing effect of neighborhood buildings. She employed experimental research method in pre-proposal stage of the dissertation and series of simulation studies for post-proposal stage. 

Roja’s broader research interests are in the areas of sustainability and sustainable architecture, net-zero energy buildings, green design, thermal comfort, occupant satisfaction and building energy use, solar radiation analysis, daylighting, material studies and digital fabrication.