The Sustainability Charette is Not Enough: Process and Tools for Conceptual Phase Analysis
Matt Brugman, Affiliated Engineers, Inc.
Bill Talbert, PE, Affiliated Engineers, Inc.
The design paradigm has changed. Fast-tracked and lean delivery of projects require a greater amount of coordination and analysis up front with ever-decreasing amounts of time to make adjustments as the design moves forward. This requires energy models and the sustainability process to adjust accordingly. Building analysis models evaluating major design options at the outset of schematic design no longer represent values to client or projects.
Initiating a sustainable predesign methodology at the outset of earliest project ideation arrives at schematic design with verified decisions and strategies in place, streamlining the design process with greater precision and preparing a facility for better performance.
Adapting the energy simulation tools, increasing their flexibility, and combining them with other analysis techniques can provide the design team with appropriate levels of information for architectural massing and orientation, for example, or façade design and its impact on mechanical system design, as well as the energy and lifecycle cost implications of annual projected performance.
The process begins with a confirmation of project intent and examination of architectural and programmatic assumptions, using a net zero energy planning tool to assist in setting project goals. Initial architectural and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) strategies are formulated as concepts for achieving goals and assessed with a running-representational energy modeling tool. Quantified in this manner, real bases for comparison are produced and concepts are reassessed and prioritized, and rejected or advanced, in a closely iterative series of design workshops and development sessions. Outcomes are presented, concepts are validated, and a verified basis of design is produced.
In addition to generating the data, using appropriate means and methods of communicating the results is paramount to convey the challenges, the options, and the most appropriate solutions. Effective integration of data and imagery is essential to successfully conveying sustainability and energy-efficiency strategy development. This needs to be completed before schematic design begins.
Contrasting the benefits of sustainable predesign methodology with limitations of engagement at the outset of schematic design, this presentation details a proven approach to greater precision and performance.
Biographies:
Matthew Brugman, AEI sustainable systems analyst and LEED® AP, provides technical support and expertise to the firm's sustainability design services, acting as a sustainability consultant and providing technical energy modeling and analytical daylighting support to the firm's functionally-intensive facility projects. Mr. Brugman has also provided technical analysis for a variety of institutional energy programs, including The University of North Carolina's Strategic Demand-Side Energy Plan, and The Ohio State University's Energy and Infrastructure Plan. His experience includes whole-building and system-level energy modeling for the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research, Providence Alaska Medical Center, and the Oregon State Hospital. His education and experience in building systems engineering, lighting design, and architectural engineering have helped Mr. Brugman to inform preliminary strategies for energy savings and sustainability in such projects as The University of California at San Diego's Clinical Translation Research Institute, the Wisconsin Energy Institute, the University of Minnesota's Biomedical Discovery District, and the University of Texas at Austin's new Engineering Education and Research Center. Mr. Brugman's experience with the conceptual design of research buildings, as well as low-energy and off-grid buildings, has contributed to the creation of some of the tools and processes discussed in this presentation.
AEI's senior sustainable systems analyst Bill Talbert, PE, LEED AP, leads AEI's building performance modeling team, providing mechanical system design services and performing building energy analyses examining the effects of high-performance envelopes, daylighting controls, building orientation and geometry, thermal energy storage, energy recovery, ground source heat pumps, and other system designs. Mr. Talbert led the energy analysis services for the 5-million-square-foot, LEED Platinum, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology campus in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, for the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill strategic demand-side energy plan, which included existing building energy audits and calibrated energy modeling, and for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's Public Health Sciences Building. He has performed energy, daylighting, and renewable energy simulations for a wide variety of projects including The Ohio State University's Energy and Infrastructure Plan, Oregon State Hospital, University of Florida's Biomedical Science Building, Iowa State University's Agriculture and Biorenewable Laboratory, and Indiana University's Multidisciplinary Science Building, as well as for the Kettle Foods Manufacturing Plant. Mr. Talbert has written on the topics of HVAC retrofit with hybrid geothermal heat pump and on innovations in energy design analysis and evaluation. He has served as a member of the ASHRAE 90.1 SSPC Energy Cost Budget Subcommittee.