Now that Green Building Week has drawn to a close I thought I’d take this opportunity to reflect on the event we held last Monday – Environmental Modelling for a Low Carbon Scotland. Our ‘thought trees’ certainly got the discussion started (I’ll go into the feedback received later on) and the after seminar question & answer session was fierce. But what was clear, was the huge interest in better understanding how computer modelling (or building performance simulation) can deliver more sustainable buildings, and even cities.
We started the evening with a kind introduction from Lori McElroy Sust. Programme Director for Architecture+Design Scotland, followed by a short presentation from Dr Don McLean Founder and MD of IES. Covering the current state of play in the use of simulation for low-carbon design, Don started by celebrating the world leading status of the UK – “From recent trips to the US I’d say they are at least 5-10 years behind us in terms of thinking and they certainly turn to those companies with a UK presence for experience.” Then looking to the future he explored some of the research areas IES is currently involved.
David McNeill, Technical Director of Buro Happold gave the main presentation of the evening. Kick started with a look at how Victorian design techniques used many passive elements such as central circular openings high up to vent heat and introduce daylight. He then took us an a whistle stop tour around the Riverside Museum, the Burns Museum, Queens University Belfast and Saudi Arabia, looking at how different areas of simulation were used on each project to prove or disprove concepts and stretch design boundaries.
Quote of the night from him “Sometimes you do a model and it proves things don’t work but better to do it then than find out when you build it in real life.”
A lively question and answer session followed the presentations which we eventually had to wind down in order to give us some time to enjoy the wine and canapés. The interest in where the future of performance analysis could take us was exciting; with concepts around analysis for eco-cities being discussed through to how to effectively bring design and operational modelling closer together and integrate this with FM process and building controls.
The prize for controversial question of the evening goes to Colin Donald of the Glasgow Herald. Referring to the Riverside Museum he asked; “So did Zaha Hadid have any kind of idea the impact a 30m high glass wall would have?” The answer? In essence, shortening a long response down, the clear vision and understanding of the curators regarding the internal conditions required and computer modelling allowed the design vision to be effectively created to perform well.
You can watch a video of the seminars here and review some of the tweets from the evening using the event hashtag #lowCO2scot11.
So that just leaves us the ‘Thought Trees’ which were dotted around the venue asking key questions about sustainability in Scotland. A big thanks to Urban Realm which supplied one of the questions. A selection of the responses received are below. What are your thoughts? Please add your comments below and keep the discussion going.
What’s the biggest sustainably challenge you’re facing?
- The gap between design and operational targets and modelling. Although IES can do operational modelling, Building Standards still claim that they specify all assets, whereas they only specify elements of the assets - the specification gap arises. The emphasis of all those talking about projects they have done should be to discuss the actual energy in operation, not the design targets; I have yet to see an architect quote actual energy consumption. Bring on DECs.
- The expectations of the people within them. We have seen a dramatic inflation in people’s expectations of the environment in a building. While the demands are for 23-25 C so that people can walk in their shorts at home at any time of year is excessive. Halogen lights on everywhere, a fridge in the kitchen and beer fridge in the garage and so on.
What’s your top sustainability goal?
- Educate your building users to operate buildings efficiency and to take ownership and interact
- To have buildings designed and built to last – not just low energy or sustainable for the current day
Tell us something about Scotland which you think makes it easier achieve energy reductions in buildings?
- Our temperate environment
- We wear jumpers inside
- Wind power
Urban Realm Question: How best can Scotland’s existing buildings be retro-fitted to meet 21st century environmental standards?
- I see lots of new/refurbished buildings consuming more energy than before due to: dark ceilings or ceilings not lit so people increase light levels to make it feel brighter; higher light levels than needed; daylighting not being used to optimally offset artificial lighting requirements (floor to ceiling)- leading to higher heat losses in winter and solar gains in summer; high solar gains in summer leading to air conditioning; high external light levels; high distribution heat losses and standing losses of boilers; underfloor heating designed to operate at too high a temperature and without heavy weight building; controls that do not allow a deadband – so it’s either heating or cooling; no means of heat escape at high level, with windows opening lower down, leading to A/C requirements; server rooms having A/C as standard and so on. These are all asset issues, not due to occupation.
- The challenge for refurbishment is understanding the whole building. We need to learn the lessons across the new build to understand the limitations of a refurbishment.
Here’s looking forward to next year’s event…
