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SUSTAINABLE DESIGN: 2050

By 2050, sustainable design will be the norm. It will ingratiate itself into every industry and inform our daily lives. Sustainable design will define the way we live and interact with each other and our environment. It will mean living simple, consciously, and holistically, taking into account how each of our actions of consumption and production affect each other and the greater environment. Sustainable design will be present in the technology that runs our homes and offices, in the transportation networks that connect us physically and digitally, and in the food we consume. In essence, sustainable design will cease to be a subcategory of design and simply become design itself. We will all be participants in it, through personalized urban gardens and shared transportation hubs.

Sustainable design will be the norm by 2050 because it is already becoming the norm. Between 1985 and 2005, for example, biomimetic patents increased by 93%. Certain companies, such as the developer Structures Design/Build are already meeting 2020 goals for passive houses. Meanwhile, 3D printing is resulting in rapid prototyping of biomimetic and other sustainable technologies that reduce waste and construction material. Thus, sustainable design is on its way to becoming the norm, and it is essential that it does so if we wish to continue existing as a species.

By 2050, the main drivers of sustainable design -- as it currently is -- will be climate change. The need to preserve habitable environments will push humanity to design sustainably. I believe that by this time, the design fields will also favor biomimetic forms, and these trends will inspire further sustainable construction. For certain cities though, specific factors will influence what kind of designs are implemented. In Boston, for example, interventions designed to reduce the effect of sea level rising will be paramount. Perhaps Boston will become the new Venice with a series of canals, or perhaps it can construct a sort of coral reef to hold back the tides. Maybe Boston will be able to harvest the rising tides to water its rising population. With the sea level rise will come more volatile seasons and fierce storms which the infrastructure will have to confront. Boston will have to learn from natural systems, like coastal forests and coral reefs, that are resistant to hurricanes, in order to have a resilient network of towers and roads. Many cities -- Boston included -- will have to confront the issue of housing and feeding their rising populations. Solutions for densifying urban cores, through fit-outs and roof dwellings, will take the form of “veggie houses,” while aquatic and urban gardens will be essential in feeding the population without relying on acres of farmland and transportation.

Benyus, Janine. A Biomimicry Primer. Biomimicry 3.8. 

Ewing, Allison. “Vision 2020: Building Design + Performance.” ECO Building Pulse, 3 December 2013.

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SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

Mixed-used developments contribute to sustainable communities primarily through their density of services, which reduces the need for vehicular transportation. Mixed-use developments combine commercial, residential, and cultural infrastructure together in a smaller footprint that increases inhabitants’ likelihood to walk or take public transportation short distances. They also link services like electricity and water treatment, that in turn cuts down on energy consumption.

Besides environmental sustainability, mixed-use development that includes an array of housing typologies and prices increases the social sustainability of a neighborhood, attracting multiple demographics who will be able to move around between the varied housing stock throughout their lifetime, thus creating more durable, vibrant, and secure communities with strong social ties.

Both these environmental and social approaches to sustainable urbanism improve quality of life. Inhabitants lead healthier, happier, and longer lives when they live in socially secure neighborhoods that are interdependent on the environment. For example, in walkable neighborhoods, elderly citizens are more encouraged to walk, which has shown to reduce brain deterioration and maintain physical relationships and independence. In neighborhoods which showcase their energy and water infrastructure, such as with exposed infracture facilities that become a part of an urban park, people are more likely to care for their environment and participate in an energy efficient lifestyle. Neighborhoods with green space improve psychological and physical health, as well, and lead to less sedentary lifestyles.

An example of sustainable urbanism in Boston is its many university campuses. These are sites of mixed-use development that are often integrated into the larger urban context. Boston University’s Charles River campus is an excellent example of a mixed-use sustainable community that exists along the length of a multi-use traffic corridor. Commonwealth Avenue is one of the city’s main corridors, containing a trolley with many stops along the campus, traffic and bike lanes, and wide sidewalks for the thousands of students that walk most of the mile-long campus. Along the corridor, one finds numerous dorms, of many different typologies ranging from high-rises to small row houses, classrooms, and businesses used by students and the permanent population alike. The campus is linked to the urban context, with permanent and non-student housing also present, as well as non-university owned businesses. It is a neighborhood with all the services necessary to sustain and support human social life. There are also numerous green spaces, and the campus is linked to the city’s riverfront park, the Esplanade. Along the Commonwealth Avenue corridor, one also encounters many bike-share stops and green university initiatives, such as the solar power recycling bins, that encourage a sustainable lifestyle among the inhabitants.

(Farr, Sustainable Urbanism (2008): 41-59, 103-107, 113-119, 125-131.)

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DESIGNING FOR BUILDING PERFORMANCE

Targets are critical for analyzing actual building performance data because performance results should accurately correspond to the measured energy use of a building. Analyses should consider all energy systems, including plug systems, and energy modeling should measure actual performance data, rather than generalized industry norms. By creating target goals, a building’s energy use can be measured over time and altered accordingly. Gradual movement toward zero net energy can help better calculate occupants’ actual use and adjust their habits and the building’s responses over time. For example, UC Merced established energy goals and measured peak energy loads to plan their campus and plant sizes, rather than rely on industry standards of best practice, which are often measured without post-occupancy feedback.

The limitations of traditional energy models are many and often only measure a percentage of total energy use. Plug loads, or building sub-systems, are often left out of planning, and assumptions are often made about building performance, rather than the model being customized to each individual building. Furthermore, industry professionals often create models based on relative energy use, rather than actual use, that do not take into account schedules, occupancy type, and local weather.

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Indoor Air Quality Control

Design for improved indoor environmental quality can achieve energy savings by cutting natural gas by 39% and electricity by 30%. The Center for the Built Environment (CBE) hopes to achieve this via a new web-based application network that would permit building occupants to directly control their internal environments. Connected to their smartphones, occupants will be able to control built-in fans and warmers at work statons. By allowing occupants to control their unique spaces, rather than attempting to control a global temperature can save up to $62 million per annum in energy costs and up to 247,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Outside of the Personal Comfort System (PCS) being developed by the CBE, designers can also improve indoor environmental quality by managing the design of the environment throughout all phases of construction, controlling moisture during construction, limiting outdoor and indoor contaminantes, capturing exhaust, and reducing contamination in ventilation systems.

These latter methods are directly related to factors that result in reduced air quality. These include: not considering indoor air quality during design and construction;  not commissioning an HVAC system unique to each built environment; moisture in building assemblies; poor outdoor air quality; moisture, dirt, and other contaminants in the ventilation system; indoor contaminants, such as construction residue or equipment pollutants; and ineffective filtration and not updating the filtration and ventilation when occupancy type changes.

Persily, Andrew. “Using ASHRAE’s New IAQ Guide.” ASHRAE Journal, May 2010.

Maclay, Kathleen. “Office too hot or cold? Researchers aim for comfort, energy efficiency.” Berkelyan, 27 August 2013.

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Material Awareness

According to Paula Melton, the design and construction industries are moving toward and refining processes for evaluating the healthiness and energy efficiency of building products and materials. As a result, the industry is moving away from a “cherry-picking style labeling” to material ingredient disclosure. Nutrition label type product information is being disclosed by manufacturers so that designers and construction experts can be better informed about which products and materials they select. However, this can be extended to other products as well, with the benefit that the general public is more conscious of where, how, and of what their consumed goods are manufactured. Melton warns that this may result in an information overload, but if experts equipped in each respective industry is able to make informed selecting decisions, then consumers will be able to purchase healthier and greener products. For example, were the nutrition label approach applied to the fashion industry, designers would be able to select healthier materials for their clothing lines, which then filter down to the consumers.

Embodied energy is the total energy that a product consumes throughout its lifetime, from raw material extraction, to transportation and manufacturing, and ending with material disposal. Thus, designers should be concerned with the embodied energy of their products because a material consumes energy throughout its life cycle. It is important to ensure that a building and its components consume as little energy as possible, not just during construction, but throughout its lifetime. By selecting materials and products with low embodied energy, buildings will have higher durability, lower toxicity, and a decreased energy footprint.  

If I were to plan for the BAC to follow Google’s example of healthy materials, I would begin by selecting a task force of faculty and students who could review and propagate the information to the BAC community. While the BAC does undertake many small construction, gallery, and community projects, I’ve noticed that a large part of its material use comes from model making in studio classes. Thus, the task force would be primarily concerned with tracking the life cycles and extraction and manufacturing processes of common model making materials, such as chipboard, cardboard, museum board, pink foam, glue, and paint. Informing students about the impact of these common materials may help them to be more conscious about the amount of material they use and discard and which materials are more sustainable. Posting this information in studios, classrooms, and the laser cutter lab would be helpful. Once the overall health and sustainability of common materials are determined, I believe it would be helpful for the BAC to open a small student operated store that could sell healthier glues, paints, and materials to make it easier for students to acquire and use them.

(Melton, Paula. “Made of the Right Stuff.” Building Green, January 2013.)

(Cannon Design. Material Life, 2013.)

(Malin, Nadav. “A Peek Inside Google’s Healthy Materials Program.” Building Green, 29 May 2012.)

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Designing for Energy & Water

Vancouver Island University’s Cowichan Campus, completed in 2011, is an excellent example on the importance of continued building energy and water use. The campus, designed to be sustainable, utilized nearly 20 kBTU/ft2 more than was predicted. At first glance, it seems as though the sustainability engineers and architects had failed. However, there are numerous reasons as to why the discrepancy occurred, such as unusual weather conditions and operational troubleshooting. For example, users unfamiliar with the building’s features and energy settings may have set the heat too high in the winter, or not realized that operational windows could permit comfortable ventilation. Therefore, continued building monitoring, especially over the first few years of occupancy, can help inform the observers of the occupants’ energy and water habits, and thus apply that information to the building’s energy model or toward educating the occupants of the building’s features. Continuing to monitor a building’s energy and water use over its lifetime can help the users adapt their habits to be more sustainable, especially as the building’s use and users may change.

Sustainability emphasizes long-term goals that may change over time as a result of climate and use. For this reason, architects and engineers need to consider energy as a design problem. The Cowichan Campus is again an excellent example of this because it incorporates monitoring devices into its public spaces so that users can track their own carbon footprints and waste water. Too often we perceive of design as a one-time deal: We sketch a concept, bring it to construction, and then once it’s occupied, the job is done. However, as the AIA states in “An Architect’s Guide to Integrating Energy Modeling in the Design Process,” energy use has traditionally only been considered in terms of building systems. Energy needs to be considered at the start of the design process so that solutions, such as passive ventilation, can be incorporated into the architectural forms. Yet, it must not stop once the building is constructed. Design is an iterative process that can carry on through a building’s lifetime. By monitoring our buildings, we can apply our ever-growing knowledge of sustainable systems, design, and technology to them so that they can continue to behave as efficiently as possible.

Just like energy, water too must considered as a design problem. For many of the same reasons, architects must take water into consideration early on in the design process so that things such as retention basins or rainwater catchers can be fluidly incorporated. Nonetheless, water must also be designed in a different way. It’s cycle is a natural one and less dependent on human use than the energy we funnel into our homes and offices. Water will be there whether we use it or not. For example, as Paula Kehoe and Sarah Rhodes state, “Large-scale buildings produce alternate sources such as rainwater, stormwater, foundation drainage, greywater, and blackwater that, following treatment, can meet their own non-potable water needs.” Buildings can thus possess their own water systems, in which water is recycled through the natural system into uses for toilets, laundry, and irrigation. We must design ways of moving and storing water so that it does not flood our streets or damage our ecosystems. Water is unique because it is both a consumed and wasted product. Monitoring its transitions between the two can help us to better design for efficient water treatment and recycling systems that can improve the health of our buildings and the environment.

(Kehoe, Paula and Sarah Rhodes, “Water Efficiency,” ECOBuilding Pulse, 6 December 2013).

(Smith, Louise, “Strategies For Sustainability,” ASHRAE Journal 2013)

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As a Masters of Architecture student at the Boston Architectural College, this semester I will be exploring sustainability through my course Sustainable Systems. I’m excited to begin learning about sustainability beyond its colloquial definitions and to dive into sustainability at all its scales. This is a map our instructor showed us the first week: It’s the Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification map that divides the world into climate regions that designers can then use when considering sustainability in their projects.