What is it about water this year?It seems as if the whole world is raining or flooding.Of course, that just the perspective off my back porch, whereas a more accurate weather analysis would confirm that the northeast and central climate regions have indeed had the wettest spring on record, while south of the Macon-Dixon line, Texas is bone dry and crackling like a fire starter.

But extreme weather, like any extreme conditions, call for more attention to detailing in house construction.For example, in Utah we often don’t overstress if the window flashing isn’t put on just right, or the French drain was installed without a slope to daylight – because the precipitation generally comes in the form of snow, which then melts in a civilized manner and either slowly replenishes the ground water, or makes its way tidily out the gutters to the replenish the Great Salt Lake.But this year, April had 200% of rainfall, the mountains have almost 200% of normal snowpack, and we are heading into June – which can get real hot, real fast.This is likely to result in streams overflowing their banks into those starter castle homes, and pouring down the middle of downtown Salt Lake City streets.It has happened before, with much less snowpack.

credit: Insurance Institute for Business
and Home Safety

So do we build or remodel for this seemingly one-time possibility (though the last time was in 1983, still within the lifetime of a house),  pay for flood insurance or pay for the repair when the basement floods?  How much would it have cost to build in some disaster resistance?    I’m all for paying up front and getting the peace of mind, but that is easy for me to say – since I would have the resources to develop the specs and quality control the work.   Or,  I could log onto the Fortified for Safer Living website and dial in my zip code for specific Fortified requirements.

It doesn’t even need to be a major disaster to cause loss of sleep.   Just a few weeks ago, we had a tornado warning in town.  The calm between the high winds was spooky, but it was the blasting winds which knocked a rotting branch down onto the roof that was of greater concern.  It tore off some shingles and bent a gutter, both of which are now potential rain intrusions.  Then we had rolling thunder which sounded like the skies had succumbed to a gut wrenching cough, and shook the very structure of this house to the point of some windows rattling loose and breaking a window pane.  And then there has been the vertical rain which crept under the window sill onto the floor…   

This part of Virginia is considered to be a mild climate, but right now it feels more like a combination of a swamp and a wind buffeted island in the middle of the ocean.   If I were building here now, I would think about storm run-off,  moisture and mold collection around the house, protection from high wind and driving rain.  I wouldn’t choose double hung windows, and would keep the trees trimmed.    Instead, I’m moving to another house, which sits at the bottom of a gully, right next to the underground stream culvert.  Hmm, at least I’ll be on the upper floor…

Whenever the topic of innovation comes up,  for example lean construction or net zero energy, the most vociferous audiences are the naysayer or the “waiting on the other guy” group.   You know,  the ones who say that they’ll be happy to offer the product when the public or code demands it.    True,  that will sometimes be the driving force for change,  but rarely the force behind innovation.

Take the Toyota Lexus.  In my PhD dissertation, I’ve had the rare opportunity to do an extensive literature review on the Toyota Production System and Lean Manufacturing.   Not in any of the 63 books and countless articles did I come across any reference that the public was demanding the Lexus,  nor did any code or law demand that a 43 mpg hybrid version be offered to the US market.  Yet the Lexus RX Hybrid has become Lexus’s global sales leader, a part of the winning formula which has made Toyota’s the largest automaker in the world.    

This innovation comes directly from the manufacturer.  In fact, the president of Toyota envisions a “dream car that can make the air cleaner than it is, a vehicle that cannot injure people, a vehicle that prevents accidents from happening, can make people healthier the longer they drive it, a vehicle that can excite, entertain, and evoke the emotions of its occupants, a vehicle that can drive around the world on just one tank of gas.”  Katsuaki Watanabe.  And before the chorus of naysayers starts up,  look up Smart Stop Technology,  Star Safety Systems, HEPA Filters and negative air ion purifiers,  and fuel cell technology.  Toyota isn’t waiting on the other guy to develop this dream car.

Neither did Adam Bearup of Hybrid Homes wait for the customer to come to him.  Taking on projects that no other dared to take on,  he has been building super energy efficient homes at a cost and quality the blows right past the average homebuilder.   He started by trying to sell ICFs to builders who just couldn’t “take the risk,”  so instead Adam took on the bigger risk of becoming a homebuilder and figuring out a more integrated building system.  And, by the way, ICFs were NOT invented by the general public nor pushed by codes.   This was the invention of a couple of entrepreneurs.

So while your architecture firm is waiting for that innovative owner who is demanding the product,  why not challenge your suppliers lunch-n-learn sessions to become innovative brainstorming sessions of possible project iterations,  or invite an engineering firm to an AIA meeting to discuss ideas and solutions for specific structural issues (thinking Japan, tsunamis;  Memphis, floods;  Oklahoma, tornadoes; Utah, torrential rivers when the 400% of normal snowpack melts…).    

Dreams come from dialogue, and it takes at least two people and some questions for that to happen.  The first step can be to cross over your imaginary work boundary line, and make a call, go to lunch, and start thinking in possibilities. 

There is a way to do it better -  find it.   Thomas Edison

The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.  Linus Pauling.

To Be or NOT to Be; Embodied Energy vs Character

In the debate between historical preservation and energy efficiency, the question of embodied energy often surfaces. That is, the existing amount of energy and related environmental damage caused by the material which is already in the building. The theory being that if you have already incurred the initial environmental costs, then the life-time costs can still be reduced if the material use is extended. While this is true in theory, there are other considerations - such as - does the building still have a meaningful purpose and do people want to use it?

In previous blogs, we have looked at how buildings can age gracefully, and designing for the long now, but we have yet to come up with a truth table which helps us determine the decision for the building life: to be or not to be. I came across a very interesting concept in a Dutch book about Buildings that Last regarding the concept “cherishable.” Prof. Ir. Hans de Jonge (Delft Univ.) says that “what endures is dear.” Dear, in this use, is the definition as “what is loved.” So, in addition to the rational calculation of embodied energy, he suggests it does not make sense to leave buildings standing forever if no one wants to use them, no one cherishes them. On the other hand, we may want to preserve some buildings despite the amount of materials and labour it takes to bring them up to modern energy standards. So what makes a building cherishable?


The naked truth. Walk into a building before the interior fit-out and you’ll get a good sense of its character and whether or not you will cherish it. This isn’t something which can be easily quantified, certainly not in the short space we have here, but it includes light, shapes, human scale. It is also a reflection of the materials, the security of seeing the structure, the attention to details, to craft.

Nor is this distinction between cherishable and wrecker ball easily assigned into categories. For example, there was a strip mall at home which has sat empty for years, while big box stores moved into new spaces. I did wonder if there was some underlying structural problem. But I had a chance, later, to visit a store which had moved into that space. The walls were just cinderblock, but the roof structure- beautiful burnished laminated beams! All it needed was some appropriate filtered roof lighting and nighttime uplighting, and the ceiling beams could provide more character than you could ever find in a new building.

Embodied character or embodied energy? Both are worth consideration.

Starchitect or Craftsman

Last weeks’ blog about the Aqua Tower in Chicago prompted much discussion and comparison with another recently unveiled skyscraper, New York by Frank Gehry.  In fact, there was much resistance to putting Jeanne Gang in the same “Starchitect” category as Gehry, not because of lack of skill, rather an awareness the differences in their approach.

Gehry’s work has been simmering in undertones over the years of developments.  There is the issue of funding by municipal bonds and city tax breaks being repaid out in fees rather than owned up in affordable housing.  The style of work is Gehry’s “Deconstructivist” style, which presumes to disrupt traditional architectural forms with the great fanfare of a masterpiece. Yet it feels a bit of theatrics gone bad.  Three of the facades of this building are clad with undulating shapes which seem to be melting off, exposing the basic rectangular box which is already laid bare on the backside.  As for any level of “green” building, Gehry dismissed  LEED as too gimicky,  yet misses the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to environmental and social solutions of our time.  The interior spaces and materials are fairly standard, save a few brushes of the magic Gehry wand in the wavy metal doorknobs and a poured-concrete Gehry sculpture as the lobby masterpiece.   Stripped of these tacked-on elements, the building is a basic, standard box.

By contrast, the very structure of the Aqua building is unique.   The very shape of the concrete floor slabs draws its inspiration from the surrounding landmarks and creates open-air balconies which interact with the air space around the building.  These overhangs also serve as solar shading for the building, and rain drainage surfaces. The very technology of pre-cast concrete was pushed to new capabilities, from extending the range of a cantilever, to the texture and slope of the surfaces, to the forming of the undulating edge.   Gang challenged all her team to push the envelope of technology and sustainability.  For example, an 80,000 ft2 roof garden provides not only a park setting for city dwellers, but diminishes the heat-island effect of the structure.

So imagine you are a subcontractor, working on this project.   The bid for the windows needs to include high-performance glazing to optimize solar load per geographic orientation while taking advantage of the views, and the glass is to be selectively fritted to keep birds from crashing into the tower.  Having worked previously on the manufacturer’s side of the equation,  I can tell you we would jump at a job like this.  Is it more complex than just spitting out a bunch of standard product?  Yes.  But it honors the value of our product, it asks for us to engage at the highest level of technology, it respects our value.   I am quite certain that the manufacturers who worked on the Aqua building proudly show off their work to other customers, and are eager to engage in further work with Gang.

So this is my hope:  Projects which engage a collective process of workers, materials, and environment to achieve higher levels of “sustainability” will be the portal through which the construction industry can regain the sense of participation, the care of craftsmanship in our work, the creative contribution to our environment.

“ Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.”  Updike

Our Emerging Architecture Style

An historical accounting of architectural styles can be relatively well categorized up until about the Moderne period, then we drift into mid-century and the following neo-retro-classic cacophony. The scenery has been pretty bleak overall, but in the last decade,a new look is popping up, sometimes discreetly and at other times boldly. What to call it? Organic? GAIA? 

The elements are a style which grows from and connects to the environment, both natural and man-made. It optimizes materials to perform at their optimum, not their traditional. And at the core, it celebrates people.

One such form is the AquaTower, created by Jeanne Gang and her Studio group within the one week given concept design. Her team built a physical neighborhood model, and explored sightlines by attaching strings to different landmarks nearby, such as Millennium Park. To get around the obstacles of blocked views, she created terraces that extended beyond the tower’s window wall into the view corridors. The result was a wavy surface, which completes the connection by reflecting the waves of Lake Michigan.

This building grew up organically out of the commitment to providing a view for the occupants. It challenged the limits of cantilevered construction- resolved by asking the right questions. Questions which helped identify the existing constraints of the systems which were limiting the possibilities of the material. On other projects, Gang has been known to use salvaged beams directly from a steel mill, and broken glass for terrazzo. In this sense, she is drawing from the man-made environment.

At the other end of the spectrum is a Panchoran Retreat in Bali, not the typical “luxury imposed on landscape” resort, but a design which is made of bamboo that grows wild in the area as well as old telephone poles purchased from the local government. The open-aired villas draw from the local environment, which still providing luxury. All this, designed by Linda Garland, who also provides decorating advice to the likes of David Bowie, Richard Branson and Mick Jagger.

In between the extremes of high rise and jungle retreat are a host of other organic buildings, coming in all shapes and sizes, and at all price ranges. They can be square, or free-flowing; ornate or simple. But above all, these are honest, putting the person in the center of the equation, and calling on all processes, materials and systems to rise to the occasion.

Over the summer, I look forward to “collecting” these projects, as one does artwork or favorite recipes- for inspiration and enjoyment. Please share your websites, your projects. For a start, try out:http://inhabitat.com/architecture/ or www.dwell.com/homes/.

It's never too late to be who you might have been.
George Eliot (a.k.a. Mary Anne Evans)

Art and Accounting – Tools of the Green Builder

Building construction operates mostly in the middle ground of the two brain hemispheres, working on organization of relatively known materials and processes.   We are good at preserving the status quo.   Yet global environmental demands and social concerns are demanding that we shift out of this cocoon and produce a new genre of building, one which treads lighter on the environment, is socially responsible, and economically viable.   How to resolve these seemingly opposed demands?

Interestingly, the path forward is not through the middle, rather capturing the edges.  In this case, it calls for juxtaposing the artistic, creative left brain realm against the rigours of the mathematical right brain -  art meets accounting.  

Cobb House Construction

The "1000 garage" concept portends that creative solutions are most likely to spring from the unhampered brainstorming, prototyping and experimentation which happens in the relative freedom of a garage.  In construction, the physical form of this is what I am calling “Gaia” architecture – buildings which are often involve more sweat equity than material costs.  Where creativity trumps cash.  Cobb houses, driftwood houses, beer bottle transparent walls.

 

Beach House Concepts - DiTullo

This same creative energy can be released through the virtual reality of art.   Design concepts communicated through drawing, through rough prototype models, and only then through computer modeling. The very act of hand-drawing communicates that it is an idea, and welcomes people to participate in changes, whereas computer drawings convey a sense of completion and a limited access to participation.  Indeed, BIM modeling is more often used as a 3D database, despite its actual capabilities as a collaborative tool. 

Brainstorming through drawing is not limited to an architect, or to the whole building design.  Imagine an "integrated planning" meeting of the electrician, plumber and HVAC pouring over a bubble diagram, sketching in their systems, detailing out possible conflicts, or identifying opportunities for synergy.  While this involves a lot of dialogue, it is the act of sharing paper and pencil which allow for the ideas to flow and innovative solutions to emergence.

The other end of the divergent creative process is the logical analysis of mathematics, both through financial accounting and engineering.  While typically cast in the “bad cop” role, this needn’t be the case.   These analytical tools can help align the ideas to the project value, not just run the numbers on what has already been decided. For example, if contemplating  hybrid HVAC  methods,  running some energy modeling and account numbers can identify the strengths and weaknesses of a particular system, and help point out the areas which need to be resolved.    When I owned my plantation shutter shop,  running the numbers helped me recognize that the more expensive environmentally friendly paint was in fact most cost-effective, because it had better square foot coverage, and shorter drying times, but that I needed to get through the learning curve which had caused my labor costs to go up.

Art and Accounting,  Architects and Engineering -  can they find a common language through the challenges of “green” building?