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In the USA - the birthplace of behavioural psychology - you may hear of people going to see a “shrink”. When we think about people who are actively involved in creating a sustainable World, we think of policy makers, industry leaders, innovators and engineers. So how can a “shrink” shrink our environmental impact?

It has long been established by psychologists such Erwin Schroedinger and BF Skinner that much of our behaviour is controlled by the unconscious mind, implying that we are driven more by our desires, instincts and emotions, as opposed to rational thought and our ‘civilised’ modern environment. (You only have to see the way that software developers descend on a fresh chocolate cake; akin to a pack of vultures!)  Many leading scientists strongly believe in the existence of ‘selfish genes’ inherent in every one of us, giving us a genetic tendency to “look after #1.”

If we think of that chocolate cake as a bountiful World full of natural resources, we can clearly see the same thing happening on a bigger scale. Entire nations clamour for the few fish left in our oceans (remember the cod wars?); global corporations compete for the ‘right’ to remove the remaining fossil fuels from the Earth only for energy providers to compete for their perceived right to burn as much of these resources as their considerable profit margins allow. If you wondered why the Copenhagen summit last year was such a failure, you only have to think about the human condition. We didn’t get to the top of the food chain by being considerate, sustainable and nice to each other.

As the developed World strives for a better quality of life and material values, the developing nations naturally want the same things. With the World population predicted to rise from 6.5b to over 9bn in the next forty years, there are already concerns about shortages in global food production and drinking water. How long will it take before we fully understand it is our greed-driven lifestyles and subconscious desires that form the root of the problem?

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Tags:Engineers, Environment, Sustainability, USA

There is a great diversity of climate zones across the planet. Each climate zone presents its own particular challenges for the architects and engineers of the design team. High humidity year round with a small diurnal range presents a challenge to human comfort in the humid equatorial climate zone. At the other extreme, sub zero temperatures in cold regions present an entirely different obstacle. Looking to the past, at the indigenous architecture in each region, we see a remarkable level of ingenuity in design. Before the luxuries of central heating and air conditioning, people used the very form of the building as their only means to control conditions inside the building. The traditional igloo allowed people to survive in an inhospitable climate which offered little in the way of building materials. Utilising the principal that hot air rises, the sleeping area was situated on a raised platform inside the igloo. The thick snow walls insulated the occupants from the sub zero temperatures outside and protected them from the biting wind.

No less ingenious is the traditional Malay house which has an entirely different set of challenges to overcome. Large levels of openable area help keep the house well ventilated, while the overhanging roof functions as a solar shade.

All across the world, the vernacular architecture shows a wonderful degree of congruence with the climate in which it is found. Contrast this with the modern urban skyline where generic high rise apartment and office blocks replace the highly specialised, climate specific designs of the past.

Building form is now more a result of function than climatic conditions. The inventions of central heating and air conditioning represent a great achievement in allowing us greater levels of indoor comfort and flexibility in design.

However, the energy used to condition our buildings represents a significant portion of global C02 emissions. Whilst technological advancements have delivered ever more efficient heating and cooling solutions, there perhaps remains scope for improvement in the external form of the buildings themselves. Lessons can be learned from the climate specific designs of our ancestors. With the benefit of tools and technology which did not exist for the indigenous builder, we can take inspiration from their designs to create buildings better suited to their environment. If we can control climate as much as possible utilising the form of the building alone we reduce the energy expended using mechanical methods, thus helping us towards the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

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Tags:Architects, Building, climate, Engineers, Environment, reduce

Last week, Consulting-Specifying Engineer, linked to a report containing 111 recommendations to improve NYC building codes.

According to the article, the task force, led by Urban Green Council, “was charged with recommending green changes to the laws and regulations affecting buildings in New York, bringing them to the next level. The 111 recommendations largely impact new construction and renovations.” The full report can be found here.

What is most interesting (and disturbing) is the letter at the beginning of the report.

Buildings in New York City account for nearly 80 PERCENT of its greenhouse gas emissions. More than buses, cars and taxis. And in a city with more than 10,000 cabs alone, the fact that buildings are the largest contributor of greenhouse gases is astounding. But the city is trying. In December 2006, Mayor Bloomberg committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 30 percent by 2030, which will require substantial changes to building infrastructure.

What struck me about this report is that the changes are for buildings old and new. And they don’t have to do with LEED or Architecture 2030, although those benchmarks are an added bonus. This report provides New York City the changes needed to remove impediments to green building practices, ultimately resulting in greener, healthier buildings for all New Yorkers. Let’s see what we can learn from the city that never sleeps.

We will be hosting monthly AIA Continuing Education System- registered training courses at the Center for Architecture in New York City, these courses will be held over two days every month, starting on March 2-3 and 4-5, and will focus on BIM and performance analysis, utilizing IES’ <Virtual Environment> software.

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Tags:Building, Engineers, LEED, reduce

An Integrative Design Process (IDP) is a collaborative approach to building design which places a strong emphasis on cross-team integration throughout the development process in pursuit of a ‘whole building’ holistic design. But where does it start and what does it really mean? How can the range of IES <VE> software tools be used to assist in the design process?

In conventional building design a project develops through a strict and rigid chain of milestones and hand-offs e.g. owner requirements to architect, architect’s concept to structural engineer, structural design to MEP engineer etc.

This conventional process means that key members of the design team are often excluded from the initial planning stage, and with the lack of their expert knowledge and insight the project can progress down the wrong path for a significant period of time before serious underlying problems are identified. This leads to inefficiency; higher capital costs, time delays, over-sized HVAC etc.

With an Integrative Design Process (IDP) all key members of the multi-disciplinary design team are included at the very beginning of the planning stage, from the initial conception of the building itself. In this way all major design decisions can be carefully considered in relation to other disciplines right from the outset. This avoids abortive work resulting from single-minded decisions and increases overall project efficiency.

So where does building performance analysis fit-in?

The IES <VE> platform provides a unique set of analysis tools that allow building performance analysis to be used throughout every stage of the project, from concept to completion. An experienced <VE> engineer becomes an integral member of the IDP team and can really help drive the design to meet aggressive sustainability targets and objectives.

Let’s look at the lifecycle of a typical project and how the <VE> could be used at each stage:

Concept: VE-Ware and VE-Toolkits used with Google SketchUp ‘massing’ models of various design options and iterations to determine performance characteristics: climate metrics, optimum site orientation, daylight feasibility, ballpark energy estimates etc.

Scheme: Findings from Concept analysis used to select the ‘optimum’ design solution which is then progressed to schematic stage. VE-Toolkits and VE-Gaia used to enhance the basic design i.e. optimize; shading, building envelope, daylight, energy etc

Detail: Enhanced model from Scheme design is driven more aggressively with VE-Gaia and VE-Pro to extract further energy savings i.e. optimize; HVAC plant selection (right-sizing), electric lighting dimming control strategy, zone set-back temperatures, boiler/chiller optimum start/stop etc.

Construction: Findings from Detail analysis input to Construction Documentation and the optimized Detail model is then
updated with ‘As-Built’ information. This ensures that the specified design has actually been installed i.e. do pressure test results match the design infiltration rates, are installed plant efficiencies and SFP’s as per the MEP spec, has the glazing data specified(u-value, SC etc.) actually been installed? Comparative VE-Pro analyses conducted to benchmark Design vs As-Built

Commissioning: Findings from Construction comparison used to drive Quality Assurance (QA) checks in order to identify areas that are not installed and performing as per design. Detailed <VE> room loads can be used to assist in production of Commissioning Documentation and for balancing calculations for duct and pipework systems.

Operation: 6months to 1yr after completion recorded BMS readings can be compared against the As-Built Construction model. Comparative analysis is used to determine areas of the building and associated HVAC plant which are not performing as per design. The building FM team continues to monitor BMS vs Model readings, making site changes where necessary to ensure that the building operates at optimum performance.

This example illustrates how the building performance analysis can be used to fully support an Integrative Design Process. By utilizing the unique four-tiered <VE> approach (VE-Ware, VE-Toolkits, VE-Gaia and VE-Pro) there is an analysis tool for every occasion which can be closely aligned with the sustainability objectives of the project in order to realize the maximum potential.

Through the use of the Google SketchUp based conceptual <VE> analysis tools a building’s energy and carbon footprint can be optimized from the initial outset of the project, before it has a chance to progress down a wrong path. By getting involved early more aggressive energy and sustainability targets can be met and realized such as LEED Platinum, Estidama 5-Pearl, BREEAM Outstanding etc

But the use of performance analysis tools at concept stage alone is not enough on to reach these higher objectives. Aggressive targets mean that an aggressive modeling strategy must be used an continued throughout the project from concept to completion. This is the only way of designing buildings that are truly ‘green’ and is the only way of taking the Integrative Design Process to ‘Infinity and Beyond’.

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Tags:BREEAM, climate, daylighting, Engineers, Estidama, HVAC, LEED, sketchup

As a software developer the similarities between how we build and develop the software and how architects design buildings has always struck me. In this blog, I’d like to talk about how the architecture design concept of software engineering.

What is Software Architecture?

The software architecture is a structure which comprises of different elements, the external visible properties of these elements and relationships among them. It’s the organization process of defining a solution that meets all of the technical and operational requirements. It involves a series of decisions on a wide range of factors such as quality, performance, maintainability and overall success of the application.

Why is Architecture Important?

Like a complex building structure, software must have a solid foundation. Failing to consider key scenarios, design for common problems or to predict the long term consequence of a key decision can put the development work at risk. Poor architecture can make the software unstable, produce more bugs during coding phase and it is hard to support development for future business requirements.

The architecture design is an important phase of the whole development process; full consideration of user requirements, business goal and system ability, it draws a blueprint for the later work. At this stage, you should outline all the key scenarios in great details and identify all the possible pros and cons of each software attribute.

We should consider high level concerns instead of implementation details when designing architecture:

• How will the user be using the application?
• How the features of the application will benefit the user?
• How can the application be designed to be maintainable to meet the development schedule?

To understand the user requirements is the key to good architecture design, the software is just a service product which offers convenience and efficiency, all the design should be based on the consideration of those two factors.

The Goals of Architecture

An ideal architecture should be a perfect conversion between business requirements and technique requirements by understanding user cases and then defining a clear and neat way to implement those requirements by programming the software.

A good design is sufficiently flexible to be able to handle all of the user case studies and scenarios, both functional and quality requirements, efficient in implementation details.

The Principles of Architecture Design

Design the architecture with evolution in mind so that it will be able to adapt to requirements that are not fully known at the start of the design process, do not try to over engineer the architecture, and make assumptions that you can’t verify.

Instead you should keep your options open for future changes, identify the foundational parts of the architecture that represent the greatest risk if you get them wrong.

Key Architecture Principles

• Building software for change instead of building to last. There are always new requirements and feedbacks.
• Identifying critical decisions. Identify the areas where mistakes and further changes are most often made, getting these key engineering decisions right the first time so the design is more flexible.

Start with a base-line architecture to create the big picture, and then evolve the details and iteratively test and improve the architecture. Do not try to get every tiny detail right on the first attempt, get the big decision right first, and then focus on the details.

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Tags:Architects, Building, Engineers

Most large cities suffer from air pollution in winter as well as in summer time. Increasing prices for fossil fuels makes people looking for alternatives. Hamburg, as the second largest city in Germany, is moving forward and developed a strategy to base it’s entire public transport on electricity. While current train systems already run on electricity, they’re aiming to have all diesel engine buses replaced by hydrogen powered hybrid buses. For several years six hydrogen powered buses of the first generation are running on a day to day basis already and have proven their reliability. In a partnership with Daimler / Mercedes-Benz the next generation of Citaro FuelCell-Hybrid bus made it’s debut in Hamburg Nov 2009. 10 of them will start it’s service in 2010. The new buses will cut fuel consumption by approx. 50%. This advancement became possible through improvement of fuel cell technology and the use of recuperation through it’s wheel hub engines. According to Mr. Elste, director of Hamburg Hochbahn, is the long term goal in Hamburg to have all public transport running on electricity. To achieve that, current buses will be replaced step by step every year by clean, zero carbon technology.

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Tags:2030 Challenge, Engineers, Germany

We love coming back from the holidays to good news. According to Environmental Leader, and specifically by research released by Zpryme, the U.S. green building market is set to grow 146 percent by 2013.

According to the Environmental Leader article, “The commercial sector should get a boost from the news that major real estate firms have signed up for a pilot program that would help building owners, prospective tenants and buyers ascertain the energy efficiency of a building. The Building Energy Quotient program – Building EQ for short – is administered by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).”

We are looking forward to the results of the Building EQ program. Given our position in the industry, it is (and has been from the beginning) our hope that buildings are as energy efficient as possible. For new buildings, this starts from the earliest stages of design. For retrofits, there are many changes architects can implement during the remodel to ensure a building not only reduces its energy usage, but also reduces it carbon emissions.

On another note, and for a little fun to start your new year off right, our partners at Autodesk have created RetroFits, a game to help raise awareness about the benefits of better, greener buildings. Stop by and check it out! Buildings continue to be the #1 source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. But we can make them more energy efficient, little by little.

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Tags:Architects, ASHRAE, Autodesk, Building, Engineers, reduce, USA

I am going to step away from building this time and have a look at the pollution and environmental damage from aviation sector.

I have taken two pictures in Beijing while making a trip there, we can see that the air quality is rather poor during the daytime, the visibility in the city is low and it is not due to the moisture on that day, it is air pollution! I know there are a lot of factors that contribute to the pollution, factories, cars, planes etc. But in this article, we will just focus on aviation.

According to IATA’s Director General, Giovanni Bisignani, by 2010, Asia will be the largest single market for aviation. IATA is focused on reducing fuel burn hence reducing carbon emission, with every litre of fuel saved, reduces about 3kg of CO2 emission.

For speech of the IATA’s Director General, please visit:
http://www.iata.org/pressroom/speeches/2008-02-25-01.htm

The aircraft companies are working hard nowadays to reduce the fuel consumption of their airplanes. We now see better design and better engines, all these are to help create a cleaner environment around. But there are only certain limits that the aircraft companies can do, to solve the problems, everyone (including government body, airlines companies and passengers) should play a role as well in reducing the green house gases emission. With government body, airport management groups and airline companies working on shortening routes, improving air traffic management and spreading best practice in fuel conservation, what can we as passenger do to help?

I recently read one short article from a forum in Asia, one Asian airline has set up a trial policy on certain flight route that they will ask passengers to go to the toilet before boarding the plane in order to lose some weight. By doing this, they estimated that can save around 4.2 tonnes of CO2 emission per month. I personally welcome this approach as not only you help reduce the overall weight of the plane while it’s travelling, but it also gives you bigger and cleaner spaces in modern airport’s toilet. And not to mention the washrooms queuing time that I always see inside the plane!!

Here are some extra small tips that I picked up from an airline magazine about travelling:
1. Bring clothes that can mix and match easily, so you don’t need to bring too many clothes.
2. Only bring necessary accessories.
3. Roll clothes up for tidy packing, so you can use a smaller suitcase.
4. Bring lightweight equipments for business trip.

These are just some examples how we can help to reduce carbon footprint.

Nowadays I have also seen airlines applying strict restrictions and penalties on the weight of check in and hand carry luggage, I think a lot of these penalties are purely to cover the extra fuel that the airlines might need for heavier planes and not from the environmental point of view, but it certainly will help our future generation if we start using less fuel. So let’s start travel as light as possible or even better travel less where possible!

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Tags:Building, Engineers, Environment, reduce, Welcome

‘Sustaining our Future by Rebuilding Our Past’ – The title of the presentation given by ASHRAE President Gordon Holness, and the highlight of the recent annual ASHRAE Presidential event in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Westminster, London. This was a joint meeting with CIBSE, ASHRAE Group and the IMechE CBSD.

The current ASHRAE President firmly believes that energy efficiency in existing buildings is the key to a truly sustainable future… and with existing buildings being responsible for 40% of primary energy consumption in the US, you can see why. 

One of the most fascinating things about this presentation was the ability of Gordon Holness to produce detailed facts & figures at will. He has clearly been preaching the role of the existing buildings and their impact on our environment for quite some time now… Kudos!

Personally I believe to achieve an energy efficient existing building; we must first understand its complexity. I also believe that along the critical path to achieving an energy efficient existing building, we must first encounter its ‘virtual building’. Once calibrated, the virtual building with BIM will be the key to the design, redesign or retrofit. The existing building landscape as I see it is as below.

Bottom line: In this economic climate, achieving an energy efficient existing building can make all the difference to maintaining commercial survival or increased financial prosperity.

By the way, it is said that 75 – 80% of all buildings that will exist in 2030, exist today! I wonder how much of an issue carbon tax will be in 2030!

Liam

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Tags:BIM, Building, climate, Engineers, Environment, Sustainability

Congratulations to our clients, highlighted in yellow, that were shortlisted for the 2009 Building and UKGBC Sustainability Awards - keep up the good work and good luck at the awards ceremony on 24th November.

You can view all the shortlisted entries by visiting the Building Magazine article

Sustainable Designer of the Year (Architect or Engineer)

Aedas Architects Bennetts Associates Cundall Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios Jestico + Whiles pha Consult PRP Ramboll

Sustainable Consultant of the Year

• AECOM
• Atelier Ten
• Atkins / Faithful+Gould
• BDP
• Davis Langdon
• Hilson Moran
• Jones Lang LaSalle
• WSP

Sustainable Contractor of the Year (Main or Specialist)

• Breyer Group
• Byrne Bros Ltd
• NG Bailey
• United House, Islington
• Wates Group
• Willmott Dixon

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Tags:Architects, Awards, Building, Engineers, Green Building, Green Design, Sustainability, UK GBC