AIA Michigan Fall 2008 Newsletter

HAVING DESIGNS ON ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Stephen E. Smith, AIA

Shrinking Arctic ice caps may not have convinced everyone yet about human impact on our earth's fragile environment. However, when it comes to energy costs, near doubling of gas prices at the pump in less than three years certainly has hit home for most Americans.

Learning from the Past
Lessons from the 1973 Oil Embargo, overlooked during later, more prosperous decades, come to mind as the impact of finite or diminishing energy and energy-related resources intensifies.

In the architecture and engineering industries, the constraints re-emerged in the 1990s as Asia swallowed up huge amounts of raw materials like gypsum, cement and steel. Then came energy consumption with a U.S.-like thirst in the construction and manufacturing industries and by consumers. In America, structural steel costs on a new building can double or triple from design estimates to start of construction.

Fortunately, today's challenges will arouse creative solutions to energy and resource problems. Changes in individual behavior, while seemingly small, can make a great difference overall. Simple steps like insulating homes better, using energy efficient light bulbs, car pooling, walking more, or even refilling water bottles, already are saving dollars and adjusting our thinking about resources.

Designing the Future
In building design and construction, strong voices have called for sustainability: energy efficiency and minimal environmental impact. This movement was summed up in the 2002 book, "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things" by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. A visionary, McDonough put some of his "life cycle" ideas into practice with meaningful projects for corporate America, including Herman Miller in Grand Rapids and the Ford Rouge Plant.

So, what can we look forward to that will alter the look, feel, construction cost and lifetime costs of the buildings we inhabit and, perhaps more profoundly, change how we view them?

·           Closer to home. Expect more locally sourced construction materials, saving on transportation and improving construction logistics. Anticipate greater regional differences in how buildings look, adapted to local climates and materials.

·           Sustainability. Designs will promote reasonable disassembling and reuse of building materials. The cost of buildings throughout their existence includes construction, energy use, maintenance and "recycling payback." Future increases in renewable or advanced energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal and fuel cells will make facilities energy self-sufficient or even net generators of energy.

·           New ideas about urbanism and growth. Intensifying the density of populations interacting in the urban environment and aligning metropolitan areas so people move back and forth more efficiently will consume less land and energy, achieve better air and water quality and improve human relations.

An excellent example is Boston's Big Dig. Now completed, this "burying" of freeways and freeway interchanges will allow the city to develop in ways no one imagined when the project was first proposed. Note that development in general, including in southeast Michigan, enjoys the benefits of publicly financed infrastructure extension and improvement. Economic models that include developers funding necessary infrastructure could result in creative possibilities.

·           Shared knowledge and mindset. Our growing knowledge of the environmental impact of building materials increases focus on sustainable building solutions. Everything is "open game" - from building materials and construction techniques to green approaches to energy and water use, and recycling. Acknowledging that traditional sources of energy and resources are limited will drive the construction value equation toward sustainability.

·           Changing expectations. Our built world reflects our aspirations, as well as our basic needs. Younger people, in particular, seem less tied to the office as a workplace. Face-to-face business interaction is essential, but imagine working where you are, rather than spending fuel and time to travel to work. Locally, Oakland County has implemented a four-day workweek (10-hour days).

Progress is being made. There are corporations in Michigan committed to using sustainable energy sources. What today represents good citizenship and a marketing advantage will one day improve the bottom line. Armed with equal measures of knowledge and good, old-fashioned American ingenuity, we can create built environments that cost less to build and maintain, have lower true life cycle costs, and nurture us better - individually and as a society.

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