Evidence-based Green Design

Being a designer, of course I am fascinated by the power of design, and up to now, I don't think we have seen the full power of design in tackling some of our energy problems. Buildings use 40% of the electrical power in this country, and present a large target for improving efficiency. Strategies for making buildings energy efficient have been well known for years, but until recently they have been too labor intensive in the design stage to justify implementing unless a particularly demanding building owner insists on it. Building Information Modeling is the new development in design software for architects and engineers that is making possible advances in green design, some of which are discussed in this McGraw-Hill report. First of all, it automates a lot of calculations that had to be done manually up to now. This has two major effects, it makes it more likely that designers will undertake certain kinds of analyses, and it makes iterative design and evaluation of many options feasible. Second, it offers quantifiable data to be used in evaluating different options for massing, materials cost analysis, and energy cost modeling. Many of the performance aspects of architectural design have been full of rules of thumb and gut feelings, but these new tools are revolutionizing building design - welcome with me the new era of evidence-based building design.