Buildings
Carbon Neutrality Based on Native-Site Carbon Storage
A certain amount of emphasis has been placed on carbon-neutral design lately in the buildings industry. The emphasis has thus far been on building-operation emissions and to a certain degree the embodied emissions of construction. In response to this increased interest in carbon neutrality, this paper discusses alternative approaches to…
Pulling the Levers on Existing Buildings: A Simple Method for Calibrating Hourly Energy Models
Comprehensive building retrofits require an investment grade audit in conjunction with a calibrated hourly energy model. Even with the most thorough audit processes, uncertainty still remains when identifying and modeling building parameters. This uncertainty propagates throughout the final calibrated model and affects the quality of the energy saving estimates. This…
Energy Modeling at Each Design Phase: Strategies to Minimize Design Energy Use
Design teams often use energy modeling as an accounting or code compliance tool to establish that minimum requirements are met. Used in this way, significant opportunities to inform and improve building design are overlooked. Properly used, energy modeling can provide outputs that optimize a building’s energy consumption, reduce life cycle…
Autodesk AEC Headquarters and Integrated Project Delivery: Factor Ten Engineering Case Study
This paper describes the design and construction of Autodesk’s Headquarters building. The building was a “triple win”: design and construction costs were below target (benefiting both the design-build team and owner); designer and contractor profits exceeded targets; and the building achieved LEED-CI Platinum and all other goals. The building demonstrates…
Crystallized Pedagogy: Architecture as a Medium for Sustainability Education
The notion that human behavior is influenced by environmental conditions is not novel, though this dynamic is often overlooked and underappreciated in the construction of buildings and cities. Particularly in the field of sustainable or green building, focus is directed toward the impact of building-related human behavior on the environment.