Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/607779
DECEMBER 2015 | 21 RENDERING COURTESY HDR | CEI ARCHITECTURE ASSOCIATES INC. Designers are laying the groundwork for greening the built environment by GODFREY BUDD I t seems just possible that the push to improve the thermal performance of new and existing buildings, whether spurred by more stringent codes or demanded by owner/occupiers, could usher in a period of exceptional technological and design innovation. At present, architects, engineers and other design professionals seem almost unanimous that, if you plan to consult on a green building project, it is best to involve all the stakeholders at the earliest opportunity. That is often because going green entails uncharted territory, or at least a road less travelled. Early involve- ment of stakeholders and the use of modern technologies like Building Information Modeling (BIM) software produce a better design and can help avoid costly mis- takes during construction. But as green design and construction gather momentum, new products, systems and design templates will likely emerge to help today's innovations become a "new normal" in the near future. The recent arrival on the market of thermally-broken fasteners for cladding is a case in point. Thermal bridging was barely an issue a decade ago. Then, the design community wised up to the problem, and off-the-shelf thermally-broken products soon became available. Other initiatives are also laying the groundwork for the built environment of a low carbon future. A design tool that includes a database has been developed to eval- uate, benchmark and chart the correlations between the design and materials used for a building and its actual thermal performance. "What began as a response to the 2030 Challenge for energy efficiency in buildings evolved into a powerful, interac- tive visual database containing energy simulation models for more than 40 of our LEED-certified projects, and other projects with energy simulation models," said Birgit Siber, a principal at Diamond Schmitt Architects, when the ecoMetrics tool was unveiled at a Canada Green Building Council conference in Vancouver last June. Supported by its database, ecoMetrics enables a comprehensive analysis of data from energy simulation models across a wide range of the company's building types. EcoMetrics now has 42 Diamond Schmitt Architects' projects loaded into its database, which registers a portfolio average energy consumption of 259 kilowatt hours per square metre, "But the next project will affect the average. It's a living tool," says Siber. The Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) and other such associations are showing interest. "The tool informs benchmarking. You can sit down with clients and show them how their project compares with the existing portfolio. EcoMetrics might give clients the information they need to make an informed decision," Siber says. In developing the ecoMetrics, the aim was to include a representative sampling of building types from each of the main sectors – institutional, industrial and commercial. Previously, this kind of information about a building's energy systems and con- sumption was mostly within the domain of engineers' work, Siber says, but ecoMet- rics changes that. "It democratizes the conversation about energy. Everyone can now take part," explains Siber. Some architects believe that a feasibility study, published in 2012 and commis- sioned by the Canadian Wood Council, points to a method of constructing buildings that reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Titled The Case for Tall Wood Buildings, the study advocates what it describes as a new construction model for tall build- ings that utilizes mass timber panels. Mass timber construction, described in the study, involves solid wood panels engineered for strength with laminated layers of wood. In the case of cross-laminated timber (CLT), thickness can range from a few inches to 16 inches or more. Nicholas Bevanda, a principal at CEI Architecture, now HDR|CEI, makes the point that wood is from a renewable resource and sequesters carbon. "Half the weight of a large log is carbon. Once it rots, it releases carbon," says Bevanda. Inspired by the study, Bevanda entered a design for a 40-storey wood building in a competition held by the National Association for Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP) in 2012 (shown on left). The design included four exterior concrete columns and concrete core and glulam beam trusses at the perimeter. It received honourable mention, attracted wide interest, and is still being presented to groups. "A 40-sto- rey building like this sequesters 12,000 tonnes of CO2. In this design, 'wood' means that about 75 per cent of the buildings are wood," Bevanda says. Payback Time Green Building Design