GSA Targets Net Zero

Were I to envision the government as an animal, it would most likely be a large snail. Moving slowly and carrying a huge burden of regulatory baggage. My perspective is predicated on previous frustrating experiences in trying to promote insulating concrete forms, knowledge of the governors of Utah and New Mexico joining the “stick-their-head-in-the-sand” club regarding any need for weaning ourselves off oil, and suffering through the bureaucratic approach to construction which is prevalent in many municipal governments. And then, there comes a breath of fresh air.

The Government Services Administration (GSA), which was the dinosaur of all snails, was mired in red tape when Dave Barrum was brought on in 1996 to run the agency. He brought his experience from Silicon Valley to re-invent the organization. But you don’t change an organization of almost 15,000 people (at the time) and $24 billion in assets overnight. They were successive steps or peeling back the procurement policy to “open” the door for more agile and cost-effective solutions - such as picking up supplies at the local Office Max, if need be.


GSA Sustainability - New Target Set at Net Zero


The biggest shift was encouraging candor – which was a big leap of faith from the current office culture. Training was offered in planning, teamwork and creativity. The agency has adopted “Slams,” where they slam all the major stakeholders of a project together in a room for a day and say, "How can collaborate and jump through the hoops more efficiently?" A type of kaizen event.

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So the stage was set for Martha Johnson to take the reins in 2010 and escalate the energy targets from the 20% energy improvement called for by executive order to a full net-zero. This very ambitious agency goal provides the catalyst needed to creak open the casket of the contract award process, provide the commonality for inter-agency cooperation, and strategically shift the leitmotiv of design and renovation.

Her motto: "Fail forward, fail fast and fail fruitfully, because you never learn or innovate if you always do it right.” And so this massive agency is learning to be agile, creative, and to jump straight to the top rank of sustainability leaders.

The take-away from this little exposéis that “green” comes from within. It goes beyond just sticking solar panels on a roof. The GSA couldn’t even begin to achieve a net-zero without all the internal housecleaning. You can’t deliver a lean and efficient product through a cumbersome, disjointed delivery. And you can’t be nimble and efficient in delivery if the supporting structure is stodgy and bureaucratic. So it starts within. And if the GSA can do it, then it effectively raises the bar for every other public and private entity. No excuses. Go get’em Martha!!

Project Delivery Methods

The delivery of commercial construction is changing almost as often as a reptile changes its skin. The cause is the same – a changing environment. Only in the case of the construction, environment encompasses the economic pressures of time and cost, the litigious environment of shifting risks, and also the elevated criteria of the natural environment.

If I liken the types of deliveries to a family, it might play out a bit like this. Design/ Bid/ Build is the traditional hierarchical family – where one parent calls the shots, the other puts some reality figures to it, and the rest of the servants and kids do the work. A design/build might be more like an Italian family, where input is spontaneous and simultaneous, and the result is some blend of these ideas. The relative quality and value of the output is dependent on the division of power among the individual players, and whether one loud old uncle always gets his way.

Perhaps Lean could be the next iteration, an Italian family with high emotional intelligence skills, such as empathy and impulse control. They might have good interpersonal skills, and give pause in the discussion to allow the quiet cousin can have a say. There might also be respect for the elder, who keeps the perspective of not only the project at hand, but how it interfaces with the neighborhood, or the planet.

What both design/ build and lean have in common is the launch into construction prior to having completed all the details of the design. It strips away the opportunity to make all the mistakes on paper. But due to the silo approach to work, the design work could be complete in a traditional DBB, but still riddled with clashes and omissions which don’t show up until the construction process anyway.

It would seem the key is in the layering of the design decision. Recognizing the scope of the decision to be made, and forecasting enough of the future details to ensure the choice is correct. It actually forces the integration of decisions, and the planning for consequences. It calls for a clear and consistent focus on the customer’s goals and values. A good idea no matter what the delivery method.

Think of a family dinner, where everyone pitches in, with lots of discussion, passing along the key decisionmaking role with recognition of different peoples’ skills, adding seasonings and embellishments as the cooking progresses – with everyone’s “buy-in” to delivery the value - a top quality meal. Efficiency, collaboration, creativity, high value. Who can argue with that?

Craft in Prefabrication

Having at first summarily dismissed modularization and pre-fabrication as an antithesis to craft, I am beginning to see a path of synergy. For example, the most recent face of lean manufacturing has grown to embrace the concept of a work environment which is more akin to the small shop crafts worker, and the realization that lean is the opportunity not only to reduce waste, but to increase value.

This is the story of Lexus, a brand of luxury car that came out of Toyota’s challenge to take the hard way: " in choosing hand craftsmanship over mass production." It is the story of SWATCH, which incorporated Swiss craftsmanship into a manufactured environment.

The cool part about process management with the theory of constraints and lean manufacturing is that not every component needs to be made at the same speed. The task definition and people are shifted around so that the flow of all the pieces comes together at the right speed and at the right time.

In construction, it might look like this. A hospital wants to build a wing on to their building. The decision is made to use conventional steel framing. That part is pretty straight forward. But what about the decisions to be made about all the patient rooms? . Rather than wait to the end, when the schedule is behind and there is a frenzy to get things done, this group took another approach.

Build a prototype patient room. Invite the nurses, doctors, and even a dummy patient to try it out. Where should the electrical outlets go? How about the placement of the sink, or the bed relative to the window? Once this is finalized, the 178 patient rooms are then pre-built in an off-site facility. In this true case, the labor costs went down 20% and the delivery of the rooms was well ahead of schedule. In other words, there was both the time and the labor costs for a high level of craftsmanship in the finish of these pre-fab room modules. They were then lifted up onto their floors by crane, and snapped together in place. A similar approach was used for bathroom pods, and overhead corridor utility racks.

By pulling out parts of the project which don’t need to be completed on-site, subject to weather, delays, or unsuitable conditions, these project components now have the ability to re-introduce craft. They are also in a much better position to re-introduce customization – as the factory set-up allows for easier inventory of a selection of materials and parts. This is how automotive manufacturing works. Small batches, regular flow of work, and quick change-outs to alternative parts.

There are many ways of modularizing - by layers, as we discussed on Friday; by spaces; or by a repetitive task – such as wiring electrical boxes. We just need to crack open the old patterns in our minds to see the new patterns available to us in construction.

Designing in Layers

In doing life cycle analyses on buildings, it is easy to disengage from reality when entering the expected service life of the components.  Asphalt shingles, 20 yrs;  brick walls, 100 yrs;  HVAC 15 yrs.  This assumes that any component can easily be lifted out and exchanged, with no impact on the other pieces.  Yet, we currently design and build these components in an interwoven spaghetti bowl.  Not only is this a source of conflict between trades on jobsite, but it becomes an unraveling thread for anyone attempting to do a remodel. 

What if we were to design with an eye to the longevity and expected maintenance, or replacement of any one component?  I draw inspiration from Stewart Brand, in How Buildings Learn  -( now available in great videos)  and the concepts developed by the OpenBuilding group.     They propose the basic elements of structure, systems (mechanicals) and space, with additional considerations of site, skin and stuff.    How does one disaggregate these intermixed elements? 

While structural design in the past use a distributed load which involved interior bearing walls, this is very susceptible to remodeling blunders, leaving sagging ceilings, roofs caving in, etc.  If the bearing structure is simplified and made more robust, the remaining interior spaces are more open to customization – either by current or future owners.

ICF walls & concrete slab floor

For example,  a townhouse complex  in Oklahoma City was designed to a dimension which would allow for a suspended hollow-core floor slab to span the full width between the exterior concrete walls.  This structural component can easily last hundreds of years.  The exterior skin may be changed out ever half century or so to update the look, and the interior space plan can be adjusted as frequently as the landlord/ tenants agree upon.  The mechanicals -  ie all the water/ heat and major appliances are built into a central core, which has access for maintenance and updating, but is not disruptive to the rest of the partition walls.  And electrical?  I need to find quiz a good electrical code expert to see how moveable walls can comply with code.  

Another example was the Banner Bank Building, an ordinary office complex turned LEED Platinum, which picked up some incredible adaptive space and lowered their costs of construction by pulling the bearing wall from the outside perimeter inward by the depth of one office.  The floor cantilevered out to the exterior skin, which was now free for any iteration of exterior surfacing  and thermal envelope desired. 

There is a plethora of good materials which frees up our design possibilities:  ultra high performing concrete,  light steel beam, high strength cable tensioning.  Nor is it always a high-tech material, but more a question of structural optimization and seeking out the right material solutions. Mostly, it’s time we invited structural engineers to step up to the plate and become partners in design.

When Sound Becomes Noise

Old Houses are a virtual cacophony of creaks, groans and rattles that are endearing and somehow, comforting, to those who inhabit these houses.   For example, the cracking and popping of the radiators conveys to me that the boiler has kicked on and I’ll soon be feeling the resulting warmth.  I can monitor the outdoor temperature by the noise of the rain and wind. I know it is a good day when the squirrels are cavorting on the roof, and I hear the patter of their feet. 

However, a guest in the house may not have the same warm n’ fuzzy reaction.  Apparently, the popping radiators can be heard as some form or pending explosion.     But once explained, I find that most people settle into the character of an old house, and welcome – or at least forgive – its chatter. 

However, sound becomes noise, and an annoyance to homeowner and guest alike, when the source is people.  Maybe because, unlike radiators and rain, people should be able to control the noise they make – and we expect that courtesy.  And while this blog is not a rant about my current situation, in which I am subjected to lots of pots and pan banging somewhere between midnight and 3 am every night, it does acknowledge that such people do exist.  What to do?  In an old house, buy earplug.  But let’s look at some steps to take in a new house.

Sound travels .  Remember standing by a keyhole to eavesdrop on the conversation on the other side of the door?   Accoustics is a very complex topic, but it would be a fair assessment that we can do no wrong by reducing the sources of noise – exterior and interior.

LOGIX ICF chosen for site next to RR track (top of photo)

Noise from the outside world is increasingly harsh.  My house transfers not only the patter of the rain, but the commuter traffic noise from the street out front.  And I’m out in the country – imagine if this were a real city.  Insulation is the easy solution to the problem, the more the merrier.  But it must be continuous, for just as thermal breaks can transfer heat, so can they transfer noise. The other time-tested noise defense is solid mass.   Castles are very quiet indoors.  This, of course, is one of the compelling arguments for ICF construction.  In fact, I can think of a several examples where ICFs were chosen for apartment complexes built next to railroads; or to block out the noise from a sports complex to the offices above, or for construction of theaters – to block the Rambo rampage from disrupting the chick flick.

The other source of noise is within.  And while we cannot eliminate these sources, we can provide a protective buffer.  The biggest problem with an old building is that all of the interstitial space are connected.  This means that a pot banging in the kitchen is amplified throughout the spaces in between the floors and the walls to ensure that the whole house is informed.  Again, insulation in the floor and the walls surrounding the noisy room would take care of this – blocking the transfer of noise. In new construction, a method of off-set studs is also used to cut the transfer of decibels.  And again, concrete works best for deterring the very low decibel ranges.

Duct Silencer

One oft-overlooked culprit of noise transfer is the ductwork of a standard forced-air heating system.  These are problematic both per force of the noise generated by a mismatch of duct size to fan, improper bends in the ductwork too close to the fan, or popping and cracking of the metal ductwork.   But the open space of the ducts is also an unwitting conduit for the "private" conversation in the living room to be overheard by the teenagers in the basement - or vice-versa.   This should be avoided through design, but several retrofits are possible, all including some form of baffle to help muffle or scramble up the sounds. 

Ironically, super energy efficient houses are often so insulated from the noise as to not be in touch with what is going on outside.  Maybe that’s why castles posted sentries.   Will we need to invent some high-tech solution, similar to the two cans with a string connection, that we can install on a wall, with a selective on/off switch?    Having blocked out the noise, do we invite the sound back in?  

Solar Air Heating

Solar power is the most common solution proposed for alternative energy, but is seldom a feasible economic solution, given the baseline assumptions of the average energy inefficient house, and the solar proposal taking the form of PV panels.  But what if we change up the assumptions, starting with a ZEH or PassivHaus, and open up the possibibilities for solar energy capture? With a lower demand for heating and cooling, and the assistance of passive solar heating and cooling techniques, are there any other non-PV approaches for solar heat capture?

Let’s look again at my favorite vehicle – air. Clearly, my paradigm is based on the benign role of air in my home stomping grounds of the western desert.  The air can become very cold or hot, but is rarely damp. This is a climate in which objects dry out and mummify, but typically don’t rot. So forgive my bias for a moment, and then we’ll add the moisture factor back in as an additional consideration.

Passive Solar house design from the 70’s invariably included some greenhouse space as pre-heat areas. The problem with this strategy was the very high requirement of occupant participation in securing thermally insulated shutters at night to prevent this same area from losing all the heat gained during the day. And, of course, these spaces overheated in the summer. The concept of capturing the air heat is worthwhile, but perhaps requires a decoupling from the interior space.

One interesting approach to an independent solar air heater is the Solar Wall. This transpired solar wall has a perforated metal plate which serves as a preheat mechanism for intake air.  When heated air is NOT needed, a switching mechanism pull opens this loop to both pull air from a cooler intake air. The integration of these panels into the indoor air environment could be as simple as connecting this fresh air intake into the return side of an HVAC system.  It could also be designed for specific applications, such as a “dryer room” in the basement – for air drying clothes - or food! - year round. Think organic.

There is perhaps a greater ROI when the solar wall concept is installed as a mechanism to remove excess heat from the backside of solar panels, thus improving their efficiency. These SolarDucts can also capture the preheated air to add heat (dry) to a un-conditioned attic in winter months, or be vented as surplus heat in the summertime.

Another approach is to transfer solar heat to a mass, which can radiate back to the interior at a later time. The Trombe wall was such a vehicle developed in the 70's solar heyday, but it was sometimes clumsy in the location in interior space, and it couldn’t be “switched off” to prevent overheating.  Heat sinks designs work better when decoupled from the living space.   This might be a contained rock bed area, or an interior pool of water. One ingenious engineer created an insulated area under his porch which was filled with barrels of water. The air preheat was pushed into this room, where the water absorbed the heat. Cheap and cheerful.

A similar principle is behind a “cold roof” application, or a rainscreen application. The airflow underneath a concrete tile roof, or behind wood siding flows due to a convective current, caused by the hotter air flowing upward and pulling in more air behind it. In this case the air is not capture for indoor use  – but it serves the purpose of distributing the captured heat evenly, pulling out moisture as it flows. In the case of a Bartile Roof, for example, this air movement serves to dissipate the capture heat in the summer, while providing an even air floor to prevent ice damming in the winter.

Sun and air are two very powerful forces,  when appropriately harnessed.

Passiv or ZEH – what are the HVAC Solutions?

While the debate of between the relative merits of Passive House vs. Net Zero rages on, I continue my methodical search for solutions for providing the conditioned air for these houses. While I offered a treatise on the potential of the use of the Manual J’s as intended , and the call for trained HVAC professionals (a.k.a. analysts/raters/ technicians/modelers all rolled into one..) – the question for appropriate systems still remains largely unanswered.

What we do know, is that many of the current HVAC systems available are not suitable – either because the air handler cannot be decoupled from the heating/cooling unit , thus typically oversizing one or the other, or the capital cost is not justified relative the demand.

It seems we need to go back to the basics. America is being quickly stripped of vernacular architecture which predates the central furnace and A/C, and the bits of remaining turn-of-the –century mansions clearly indicate a preference for style over function. What we do have is some level of science on our side to help guide the design.

What if we were to start off our architecture bubble diagrams with an overlay of the sources of solar gain and prevailing winds, a heating and cooling degree day chart, and a few brainstorming sessions as to how the HVAC system might be set up - presuming a tight envelope and high levels of continuous insulation.

Let’s start with hot climates. It wouldn’t take long to rediscover the deep protective shading of old Plantation Houses in the South, or old station houses inthe Australian Outback. I also remember the Outback coolgardie safe, which was a food box which used rags and a dish of water for simple evaporative cooling.

In buildings, this is called a Green Wall, and seems to be potentially practical “face lift” for the many boxy “moderne” architecture so common in mid-century, as well as the face of many new buildings, by an architectural community schooled only in drama, but not practicality. And lest we get carried away with the "green-ness" of it all,  realize these are plants, will need to be tended to, drop leaves, etc.   Parameters of design.

We may also look to Europe, where passive cooling has been used for years – both thanks to the greater use of mass materials in construction, but also a propensity for adjusting to nature. Of course, the climate is far more moderate. I’ll close with a sample sketch from Zedfactory, a delightfully creative architectural firm who if far more concerned about distinguishing themselves in matter of environment, than joining the ranks of “starchitects,” whose greatest legacy has been leaky buildings which are very un-sustainable.  The true stars of the design community are the eco-architects,  who combine good building science with design and construction.   

On Friday, we’ll take a look at a few innovative, low-tech technology – “climate changers.”