Design & Construction process
Performance-Based Procurement: Infusing Your New Construction Contract with Energy Requirements
The obstacles to a high performing building are legend, but those barriers can now be surmounted. A new performance-based procurement process, developed and successfully executed at NREL, targeted and achieved an EUI of 35 kBtu/sf/yr while keeping costs in check.
Data-Driven Design and the Living Building Challenge
Super-insulated construction, simple yet efficient building systems, and modern solar generation have made net zero energy a realistic project goal for new construction even in cold climates. However, achieving this without the use of red-list materials is a serious balancing act. Moisture control, air tightness, and thermal isolation are critical; evolving envelope products must be tested.
Redundancy. Diversity. Connectivity: Optimizing Your Projects, Your Business, Your Work
An inspirational educational session illustrating the methodologies nature uses to optimize. Through storytelling, discussions with the audience, and use of prezi as background, we will learn about biomimicry, biophilia and bio-utilization and learn to employ the clues in those realms to processes supporting project planning, business management and workflow.
For Good Measure: Monitoring Envelopes to Inform Masonry Building Renovation
Existing buildings have a unique story to tell, and we as designers and engineers must tune our design process to "hear" how our buildings actually perform. On-site monitoring of dynamic environmental conditions provides empirical evidence for building performance, which adds granularity to energy modeling practices and empowers the design team to effectively analyze unique envelope characteristics.
Is Net Zero Energy Net Zero Benefit?
Net Zero Energy (NZE), is generally thought of as the deployment of distributed renewable energy generation at the building/load location. It is offered as a key strategy in the effort to minimize and mitigate global climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions. But is this strategy and definition of NZE the best strategy to accomplish these goals for every building? Are there situations when NZE is not an appropriate design objective? What is the best strategy for minimizing global emissions? Should we create a new term instead of NZE? Our panel of energy professionals will present several perspectives on whether or not it makes sense to pursue NZE; or is there a better strategy for how to address net zero emissions.
Living Building Challenge: Historic Building, Modern Lessons
The Living Building Challenge (LBC) can be applied to any building project, including historic renovation and new construction. Charley Stevenson and John Rahill will compare and contrast the LBC renovation of an 18th century plank building to the design and construction of several new LBC buildings. By examining the three most challenging petals (water, energy and materials) they will illuminate the benefits of and the obstacles to LBC compliance.
Foam-Free - Fabulous, Feasible, and Fun!
Three experienced practitioners will demonstrate that we needn’t (shouldn’t?) be captive to foam in the high performance building industry by showing practical solutions that eliminate foam in new and retrofit applications – above and below grade. Using real projects and assemblies, the speakers will discuss an integrated design build process, review the implementation of details and sequencing and the verification and commissioning of alternative construction methods. Without dwelling on the negative environmental impacts of foam insulations, alternative, safer insulation mater
Material Selections: A Life Cycle Perspective Viewed Through One Home
Sometimes the things we think are a poor environmental choice turn out to be not so bad. Sometimes they are worse. Ben Morelli, along with Bensonwood energy & sustainability experts – Rheanon DeMond and Danny Veerkamp - will discuss the results of an LCA of a single family home; from material source through building lifespan. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of many emerging tools available to building designers and construction firms to measure and guide reduction of their structures’ environmental impact. The presenters feel it is essential to look at a broad variety of impact categories –not just climate and energy considerations - in order to assess the trade-offs that may be associated with the emerging paradigm of advanced, green buildings. The results of this analysis confirm the importance of systemic energy reduction strategies, while challenging some of our preconceived assumptions on the relative impacts of various materials.
Achieving Zero Net Energy Affordably Today: Mobile Home Replacement
A modular home factory in Wilder, VT has opened to build zero-net energy mobile home replacement units. While there have been other efforts to replace mobile homes outside Vermont, they have done so with newer manufactured housing units that suffer from poor indoor air quality, high energy costs, and durability issues. This session will provide an overview of the issues with manufactured and mobile homes including financing and depreciation, attributes of the zero-net energy replacement modular home, the design and build process, and the comprehensive whole-house monitoring system. Detailed monitored energy and environmental data will be shared from two years of occupancy. The session will also discuss design challenges/constraints associated with cost, prefabrication, and transportation of a Modular/mobile home. We will present a comparative look at cost and energy with other related housing initiatives, as well as show the cost to benefit analysis of what it would take to bring the project to the Passive House level.
Offsite Construction: the Future?
A panel of Architects and Manufacturers steeped in the offsite construction industry will discuss the future of offsite construction. Topics include the stigma of the industry itself in the US versus widespread successes overseas, challenges of the process within our current system, the truth behind perceived cost/speed/quality advantages, and the frank and current reality of it all.