Better Software = Better Green Buildings
by Neil Chambers, New York City on 06.18.07
Green design is more difficult that conventional design: The considerations within the design process has to go far beyond a gut-feeling about performance or the application of popular components such as green roofs or bamboo flooring. Energy performance is a dynamic relationship between interior and exterior factors that influence the systems within a building. Green buildings are best known for the things they do less (use less energy, use less water…have less particles/pollution within the indoor air). The building science behind green building isn’t easy to understand. Architecture is, in the end, the act of making building science real…or at least it should be. The way a design team calculates how much fuel is needed to heat, ventilate, light and cool occupiable space determines the actual efficiency of a building post-construction. Issues such as the length of day, location of the site relative to the equator, building type, wind current, solar exposure, sun azimuth , total heat degree days, total cooling degree days and topography are just a few of the factors needing to be considered. Most design teams, and more importantly – many developers, decide performance levels of the mechanical systems based on a “rule of thumb”.
Until recently, design teams weren’t concerned with how much energy was used, so climatic factors were to be overpowered rather than incorporated into the design process. Due to the fact that interest in energy performance is basically brand new, the construction industry lacks extensive methods of evaluating building performance that can be integrated into the design process easily to anticipate functionality after completion.
Software does exist that can simulate the behavior of architecture - certain engines have been around for decades. Most of the available software is highly technical needing specialists to input the data to simulate the structures, however, even with the in-depth approach by the software, the programs are not a holistic technology that takes into consideration all of the factors acting upon a building. These programs can be used to analysis specific systems such as daylight, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and mechanical systems separately. Each simulation is “ran” in isolation…how daylight effects CFD or how natural ventilation may decrease indoor air quality is not considered in these programs. Moreover, the different types of software can not communicate with each other nor can they communicate with industry-standard software such as AutoCAD or MicroStation . These issues limit the willingness a design team has to incorporate the analysis into the design process…and the client, typically adverse to project cost increases, is not savvy to spending the capital to have software consultants run the simulations.
In the United Kingdom, a man by the name of Don McLean has been tirelessly working to rectify this dilemma facing the emerging green building movement. In 1994, Dr. McLean established Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES). IES offers software to assist design teams with creating low-energy structures. The company is based in Glasgow, Scotland . IES’s software suite, the Virtual Environment (VE), has already become the best energy analysis in the UK and may quickly become the de facto simulation tool within the United States. Recently, the company has opened offices in Boston and San Francisco . One of the reasons for the success of IES is that VE circumvents all of the problems other simulation tools pose for the design team. The software is unique in that it operates from a single building model. The transfer of data from one application that evaluates CFD can be used to assess daylighting which then can be used to estimate the reduction in costs, occupant satisfaction and then used to figure out how the building uses less energy, emits less carbon and considers the consequences of different design options. Plus, which the developers will like, the simulations are fast and don’t need a team of consultants…which makes green design less expensive.
As Chien Si Harriman, IES’s United States West Coast Tecnhical Manager explains, “IES combines the simulation process into one common interface. Conventionally, for a project team to decide if a window needs to be operable to increase natural ventilations, three software packages would need to be used….for IES, it’s all in one.” Another positive aspect about IES is that they have beta tested VE with AutoDesk’s Revit . Revit models can be inputted into the VE interface, and then exported back into Revit seamlessly (for those not-in-the-know, Revit is to AutoCAD as AutoCAD was to drafting boards ). Another notable point about IES, architects such as Norman Foster and Ken Yeang use the software with nearly all their projects. The famous London Gherkin by Sir Foster used IES to make the building energy efficient.
IES has a strong desire to improve the software by making it more user-friendly, easier to navigate, better graphics and speeding up computations. The software has a sweet-spot for natural ventilation simulations…another aspect of the engine that other programs just seem to not be able to do.
It takes innovations such as IES and design professionals that have a vision to apply building science for green building to continue to grow. Though green building is still, for the large part, only seen as way to market a project, technological innovations are preparing the industry to mature into more real science and aesthetic. With engines such as IES offering the option to design teams to incorporate climatic conditions rather than fighting them…green building will become, not just a process to function in “less” ways, but create abundance .
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This is fantastic software, and I am glad it is getting some attention, but I am surprised by your characterization of architects,developers, etc. and your view of 'green design' that it is more difficult and not understood or practiced by the architecture community.
I'm not sure where you went to school or when, but in my schooling (in the late 80's, early 90's) we were learning about solar heat and gain, sun movements relative to location, time of year, etc., local environment and ecosystems, etc., and we were being taught by old guys who built this into their philosphy from the beginning ( 1940's and 50's). I was taught, really mentored, the importance of fitting in and blending with the environment, not to take it lightly and as something to be subdued. For example, one of my design projects was to design a simple house for a family with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, kitchen, dining and living to be as small as possible and use as little energy as possible. I came in with around a 900 square foot house that relied on the local mini ecosystem for its heating and cooling, water, etc. That was in 1991, not a hipster 2007 prefab design.
For a good architect, sustainable design is paramount to a good building and has been a part of the profession since before their even was a profession, depending on the particular culture of course.
Maybe I'm just spoiled, but for the few places I have worked over the last 14 years since graduating, every one has placed an extremely high importance on building performance and efficiency.
Pardon me for my rant.
Cheers
George,
Thanks for your comment. i've worked within the green design field for over 12 years. During that time, I've had the opportunity to work on some amazing green projects. i do think green design is more complex than conventional architecture. Conventional design doesn't take several issues into consideration that green design does. I've worked with architectural firms, developers and other types of business to help them go green, and it takes a long time for professionals to really, really see how green design works. i think you are right though, that once the business or professional incorporates environmental practices into the their process, the creation of better buildings/businesses is much easier.
im in college at the moment in dublin, and we have a subject enviornmental design in which we learned to use a beta version of a program called LTeurope which was very simple but quite powerful and with it we could work out what was needed in the form and fabric of a building to make it low enegry and even passive.
this IES software seems much more advanced. the LTe is more so for sketch scheme stages..
George, I agree completely. Modern society's fascination with technology and computers sometimes obscures real truth, especially in sustainability.
Green design is just good design. Builders built for passive solar, natural ventilation and for human and ecological health 200 years ago.
Personally, I'd put some of the best architects/builders of the past few hundred years up against the most advanced computer modeling programs...and bet it'd be a wash.
And as you write, these principles are not new. Passive solar, natural ventilation and some of the "greenest" strategies have been around since man has been building structures.
It's not more difficult to build and design sustainably, at least not any more tough than it is to do anything the right way.
Have you ever tried to import a 3D model into IES built in a different package!? Innovative it may be but a real pain to use. Try Ecotect for a more pleasent start... www.squ1.com
Judit
Very nice software and article.
Here is another worthwhile environmental analysis software: ECOTECT.
Take a look on http://www.squ1.com