IES Blog

This month, our Founder and CEO Don McLean published an article with Area Development titled, “Building a Strong Energy-Efficient Foundation”. In the article, he explores the value of quantifying and incorporating building performance analysis into the earliest stages of the architectural design process.

Why is early-stage performance analysis so important? To answer that question, here are a few take-aways from the article:

•    When it comes to designing sustainable buildings, building performance analysis is key. After all, by using performance analysis software, architects and engineers can not only virtually test the feasibility of different energy-saving strategies, but they can also make much better decisions on elements that play an important role in reducing the energy consumption of a building.

•    Performance analysis helps to understand how a building will perform under predictable circumstances, which is required for a sustainable, energy-efficient design. What’s more, the biggest impact in terms of designing a sustainable building can be made by using performance analysis software from day one and through every step of the way.

•    With performance analysis, realistic energy goals can be set and reached. How? Analysis can identify and understand the big issues related to building energy use and performance, which supports the setting of goals and the ability to choose and design strategies to achieve them.

At the end of the day, it’s all about achieving true sustainable design. As architects and engineers act on performance analysis metrics and identify the key drivers for an energy-efficient foundation in the earliest stages of the design process, we can expect to see much more sustainable design in the years to come.

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Tags:Architects, Building, building performance, design, IES, software, Sustainability

Last week, we headed to the land down under for the 12th International Conference of the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA). From November 14th to 16th in Sydney, Australia, simulation researchers, mechanical designers, government legislators and more came together with the local simulation user community for Building Simulation 2011, co-hosted by IBPSA Australasia and the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air-conditioning and Heating (AIRAH).

At the conference, we showcased and provided live software demos of VE-Pro, our suite of building performance simulation tools, and VE-Gaia, our architectural analysis tool. Our experts also had the opportunity to present a couple of research papers, one of which involved a case study of the William McCormack Place Stage 2 building, a government office building in Cairns, North Queensland. This paper explored key strategies used in the HVAC systems and discussed the thermal and CFD modeling involved during the earliest stages of the building design to optimize the building’s environmental performance.

The second paper we presented described two new indices to assess and benchmark building energy performance – the Climate Energy Index (CEI) and the Building Energy Index (BEI). In a nutshell, these globally-applicable energy indices were developed as a means of quantifying the climate impact on building energy performance, and distinguishing climate-related and climate-unrelated energy end uses. Our paper specifically described the derivation of the indices calculation methods, and presented some case study results based on two types of building models.

Overall, our team had a great time at the show meeting with others involved in the building performance simulation field. Regarding the papers we presented, they will be available on our website shortly – stay tuned!

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Tags:Australia, Building, climate, design, Modeling, VE-Gaia, VE-Pro

October was a busy month for our North American training road show! Toronto, Chicago, Orlando, Atlanta, and Minneapolis! Over the course of the two-day programs, our IES experts have helped attendees across the country to learn first-hand how to use our sustainability solutions to design more energy-efficient buildings and achieve LEED credits.

Not familiar with our training programs? Starting back in August in Chicago and Denver, we set out on a Road Show across the United States and Canada to conduct two-day training events. Designed for engineers and sustainability consultants, our events aim to give attendees the opportunity to learn simulation techniques and methods to enable more sustainable design practices. The first day focuses on intermediate simulation analysis, followed by advanced and building integrated systems modeling on the second day. In your city, if you’re only available or interested in registering for one of the two training days, that’s not a problem since they can be taken together or separately.

So where are we headed next? After Thanksgiving, our Road Show wraps up the month in Orange County / Los Angeles on November 29th and 30th. On December 13th and 14th, our last two-day training program of 2011 will take place in the Washington D.C. area.

To register or learn more about when we’ll be in a city near you, contact erin.lofstrom@iesve.com and check out http://www.iesve.com/training/events.

We look forward to seeing you!

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Tags:design, Engineers, event, IES, LEED, Modeling, North America, Sustainability, Training

Ah, the arrival of first Christmas card of the year is rarely a welcome sight. It usually arrives early November when the thought of queuing for hours for overpriced gifts, eating your own body weight in chocolate and wearing your Granny’s knitted woolly jumper, seems a long way off. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Christmas as much as the next person but my festive period kicks off at least one week into December.

Thankfully the first Christmas gesture of the year has totally contradicted my scrooge like ramblings above. One of our software engineers, Don Stearn, has followed his yearly tradition of making a donation to Oxfam rather than getting cards for everyone in the office. This year’s donation has gone towards sending Sheep to Gitovu in Rwanda, while last year’s donation was invested in Photovoltaic solar panels.

Oxfam Unwrapped is a fantastic initiative that allows you to buy gifts that result in a big difference in many people’s lives. Everything from farming tools to small business loans can be donated on behalf of others for Christmas this year. The video here sums up the project nicely.

It is also worth checking out the work Oxfam are doing to support those that have been seriously affected by climate change across the world. Their Smart Solutions campaign is focused on coming up with ways “to help people adapt to climate change, reducing its impact on their lives”.

So there is no shortage of ideas and inspiration if you are looking for stocking fillers this Christmas.

I, on the other hand, will have to save my first “bah humbug” of the year for the first Christmas song I hear…

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New York City’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC). As the City’s primary project manager for construction projects, they build many of the civic facilities New Yorkers use every day.  And recently, the DDC has been designing and refurbishing libraries, firehouses and museums, bringing new life to old buildings and reviving the city with a renewed look at architecture.

One recent project is the Queens Central Library, referenced in the NY Times article, “New York’s Public Architecture Gets a Face-Lift.”

What I find interesting is the reference the editor makes to Starbucks and Barnes & Noble. These seem like the most un-architecturally appealing buildings, and certainly not a place for intellectual stimulation.

Libraries have also learned from retailers like Starbucks and Barnes & Noble about what people expect when they leave their homes to go someplace public to sit and read. Libraries have become modern town squares and gathering places; they offer millions of New Yorkers employment counseling, English-language classes and, crucially, Internet access.

But the inspiration certainly worked for the library in Jamaica, Queens. Its architectural design is fresh, unique and inspiring, but still fits in with the surrounding low-rises in the area. Looking at this project an architectural eye, I think this revival of sorts demonstrates what can happen when architects, even without a whopping budget, can do if they have an innovative agenda and a supportive client. Applying the basics and designing with the future in mind is something we can’t take for granted – NYC’s DDC is a great example of what a little updating can do to bring buildings into the 21st century.

This sums it up quite nicely.
And it’s the small things, after all — some greenery, good lighting, well-maintained sidewalks and well-made buildings — that shape our perceptions of where we live, whether or not we’re always conscious of them.

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Tags:Architects, Building, design, New York

Zero net energy. It’s the buzzword for office buildings, residential developments, individual homes and schools. And a recent Los Angeles area design firm – The Swift Lee Office – is earning recognition for its public school building prototype.

A recent article in LiveGreen outlines some of the specifics for a school building design completed by the architecture firm, and the various elements the design incorporates in order to achieve a sustainable, zero net energy footprint. What I found most interesting from this article was the fact that Swift Lee considered the entire lifecycle of the building in their design.

A best practices approach will be applied to minimize the amount of waste during construction, the structure will achieve net zero energy while in operation and can be largely recycled once it is dismantled.

I think Swift Lee hit the nail on the head.  This holistic approach is the key to sustainable design. It’s not just about designing for today. Because if we’ve learned anything from the past, it’s that things change. The way we design and create buildings today, while leaps and bounds ahead of where we were even just a few years ago, will likely change again over the next decade. We’ll discover new technologies and ways of designing, and just that like, what was “revolutionary” in 2011 will be obsolete then. But we’ve been given the opportunity to design our buildings to be the complete package, and the ability to use technology to advance the entire design process.

I’m looking forward to following this story and to seeing the completed school projects in Los Angeles. My hope is that The Swift Lee Office model catches on, and that more designers look at the whole picture when designing, not just for today – but for the future.

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Tags:design, Modeling, Net Zero Energy, Schools, Sustainability