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S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y
The sustainable future Industry experts weigh in on how sustainable design, processes, and products could affect the A/E industry in 2016.
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By LIISA ANDREASSEN
Correspondent A
“The definition of sustainability is becoming all-encompassing, and designers have a vast amount of technology and tools at their disposal to produce sustainable buildings that are long-lasting, intelligent, and financially viable.” As technology improves, Brogini says that clients expect a higher level of work through the imple- mentation of building information modeling dur- ing the design process and the incorporation of vir- tual design and construction during the construc- tion phase. All the while, lean principles will be incorporated in the project to reduce its duration without impacting the project’s quality. “Mitigating the effects of climate change, especial- ly for municipal and government agencies, means minimizing long-term financial vulnerabilities, as well,” he says. s clients become more sophisticated, the def- inition of sustainability will continue to ex- pand beyond the tangible buildings and materials. Clients are more aware of the risks and costs in- volved with development, and as a result sustain- ability has grown to include minimizing risk and reducing long-term costs. So, what does the year ahead look like for sustain- able products and processes? We asked a few de- sign leaders from large, medium, and small firms to weigh in. LONG-LASTING, INTELLIGENT, AND VIABLE. Simone Brogini, a senior project architect with Kleinfelder (San Di- ego, CA) – a 2,000 person global science, architec- ture, and engineering consulting firm – says that there is a stronger emphasis on designing buildings that are resilient and adaptable as climate change data becomes more readily available. BIM allows designers to provide clients with a vast amount of information throughout the design and construction processes, including material specifi- cations and quantities.
“When used with energy modeling software, BIM models can provide design guidance to improve energy performance,” Brogini says. “They can also move to 4-D BIM when information such as sched- uling is intelligently linked to the 3-D model.” With this added information, 3-D models are more frequently becoming part of projects’ deliverables. Following construction, these models are incorpo- rated into clients’ facilities operations using facility management software. This workflow improves productivity throughout design and construction and provides the neces- sary tools for clients to run their facilities efficient- ly, which ultimately improves sustainability, espe- cially in the financial sense. “The definition of sustainability is becoming all-en- compassing, and designers have a vast amount of technology and tools at their disposal to produce sustainable buildings that are long-lasting, intelli- gent, and financially viable,” she says. GETTING GREENER WITH DATA. Tracy Jordre, project ar- chitect and sustainability lead at JLG Architects (Grand Forks, ND), a 101-person firm, outlines three forecasts that top her list: 1)Green Building Performance Data. Now that this data is required to be disclosed for commercial
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THE ZWEIG LETTER JANUARY 11, 2016, ISSUE 1134
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