IES Blog

Last week our Software Development Director, Pete Thompson, returned from the 10th International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) Symposium. Pete, who is now a regular attendee of this yearly event, is the creator of Simulex, our tool which enables you to define a building and its occupants, and simulate how they move around a building day-to-day and evacuate during an emergency. The event was hosted by the Department of Fire Protection Engineering and took place in College Park, Maryland, USA.

With over 400 scientists and engineers attending the Symposium, it offers a great networking opportunity as IES continues to push into the North American market. While in the states Pete met with Don, our Managing Director, who is in the middle of a 4 country, 9 city, 32 day, 18 flight N.American & Asia trip. That’s a lot of timezones!

While at the event Pete was asked to co-chair a workshop examining how science and computing power feed into the process of modern building design and approval. The aim of the session was to “facilitate discussions between experimentalists (advancing the basic science & data), developers, users, and regulators to increase the information flow between the disciplines and attempt to focus minds on common areas of concern and benefit”. The workshop, entitled “Fire & Escape Modeling – from bits and bytes to safe buildings”, is available in the PowerPoint slides below, and they also contain links to the other discussions which took place during this block of sessions.

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Tags:Discussion, Engineers, fire safety, IES, Modeling, safety, software, USA

Is 2011 going to be another exciting year for sustainable design? We scanned the globe for some awe-inspiring projects as we welcome in the New Year.

Marina Bay Sands, Singapore: Dubbed a master class in green architecture, the lotus-inspired ArtScience Museum is a living, breathing embodiment of the ArtScience theme. The Museum will feature naturally illuminated galleries at its ‘fingertips,’ while a dish-like roof harvests rainwater for its 115 ft. waterfall.

Santiago, Chile: The Costanera Center, South America’s tallest towers to date, is aiming for LEED Gold with extensive sustainable design strategies. The center features a massive 30,000 square meter green roof and a natural cooling system that channels water from nearby San Carlos Canal.

Tainan, Taiwan: Also known as ‘The Magic School of Green Technology,’ The Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center is Taiwan’s first and only zero-carbon building. Incorporating 13 green building design methods, it features the world’s first natural buoyancy ventilation system, which keeps an international conference hall cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Florida, USA: A fantastic geodesic-inspired glass atrium in St. Petersburg, Florida is the new home to the surrealist artwork of Salvador Dalí. While its thick concrete walls were purposefully designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, its thermal mass doubles as a heat sink to minimize temperature highs and lows.

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Tags:Building, LEED, research, Sustainability, USA, Welcome

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

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

From goats to green roofs and organic composting to affordable green housing, cities across the states are working on creative ways to save the planet.   People are used to recycling programs and the promotion of public transportation, but some cities are going above and beyond those steps to ensure that our planet fights global warning.

These cities are rated in the Natural Resource Defense Council’s top 10 smart cities.  The ranks were defined by a number of different categories including alternative energy, affordable housing, energy efficiency, and public transportation.  Topping this list was Seattle, Washington who has begun using goats instead of pesticides to clear away unwanted shrubbery. 

Austin Texas made the list at number 6 for their energy saving insulation and sealing.  The city of Austin, provides free installation for the energy conserving upgrades for low and moderate income homes.  They are also running a program that allows residents to sell excess energy from their solar panels back to the city.

My home city of Boston ranks as number 8 on the list of smart cities for their implementation of one of the largest public transportation systems.  Boston is adding to their bicycle structure adding new bike lanes and more racks.

To find out more, or see how your city ranks, please see the Natural Resource Defense Council’s website, http://www.nrdc.org/about/ or http://green.yahoo.com/blog/greenpicks/249/top-10-u-s-cities-of-the-future.html

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Tags:Boston, cycling, free, recycle, recycling, Sustainability, Texas, USA