19 minute read
BIM Marks New Path To Sustainable Design
Flooring treated with an extra-dense coating, such as Evercare from Gerfl or, is practically scratchproof and repels bacteria, making it ideal for surgical areas.
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The Click System
Luxury vinyl tile with a vertical click system provides easier installation, which is a signifi cant benefi t itself. However, it supplies a wide range of other features that appeal to
designers and facility managers: • Thickness of 6 mm combined with a fi berglass grid • Heavy-duty wearlayer and beveled edges for stability • Reduces noise from foot traffi c as much as 12 dB; very little reverberation from walking; better sound-abatement qualities than laminate • Facilities can remain open during installation • Natural comfort and warmth underfoot • Absorption of as much as 1 mm of imperfection in the subfl oor • Water and stain resistance • Available in an array of colors and designs. recovery time. Topical moisture can damage wood and laminate, but vinyl’s impervious nature provides protection against spills or stains.
When skin-deep is good enough
New bio-based, homogenous, sheet-vinyl fl ooring combined with newly developed fl ooring treatments, such as Evercare from Gerfl or USA, Bensenville, IL, also provides designers and facility managers with unrivaled beauty and protection in fl ooring choices. The fl ooring features a micro-structured, cross-coat polymerized treatment that strengthens its durability. These hightech treatments reduce the need for cleaning by 55% and provide ultimate chemical and stain resistance. The treatment makes the vinyl-fl ooring surface extremely dense to virtually eliminate the risk of staining caused by chemicals such as Betadine or iodine, while also reducing the appearance of unsightly scratches or scuffs.
The extremely dense surface also minimizes maintenance—an important factor in an environment for healing—since it is a truly polish-free solution. Hospital staff can concentrate on patient health instead of the state of the fl oors. Caustic polishes or waxes are unnecessary, and fl oor maintenance is as simple as using warm water and soap.
“Sound R&D principles give way to great innovations, and a superior fl oor treatment is one innovation that provides architects, designers, facility managers, and contractors high-performing, sustainable, vinyl fl oors,” said Ken Chmura, general manager, Gerfl or USA. “If a vinyl fl oor doesn’t need to be waxed or polished the benefi t is twofold; fi rst, costly maintenance programs become a thing of the past and second, daily life in commercial environments can go on unimpeded.”
Tough-to-beat fl ooring
Vinyl fl ooring has many characteristics that make it ideal for areas with heavy foot traffi c. Certain characteristics rise to the top of the list for specifi ers selecting a fl oor for a hospital or health facility:
Durability. Vinyl fl oors are also known as resilient fl ooring, and for good reason. They can withstand extreme conditions. According to the American Hospital Association, Chicago, there are more than 1,500 hospitals in the U.S. with a hospital-bed capacity of 200 or more. Multiply these fi gures by the number of potential visitors and medical staff per patient, and you begin to see how much traffi c a hospital receives. The strength of vinyl fl ooring makes it the most popular hard surface in the U.S.
Style. Vinyl fl ooring offers an array of colors and styles to suit even the most discerning tastes within the A&D community. Healthcare designers, especially, must pay close attention to their designs, sometimes termed evidence-based design, in which colors and patterns can play a role in a patient’s recovery. The new surface treatment protects the color of the fl oor from fading or staining.
Sustainability. Vinyl fl oors are continuously improved to be easy on the environment. Innovative protective coatings contribute to good indoor-air quality (IAQ) and save water by eliminating costly maintenance chemicals that can harm the planet. In addition, tests indicate that chemical and water use is reduced by 55%, compared with traditional maintenance programs.
Affordability. Vinyl fl oors provide healthcare-facility managers with easier maintenance and longer fl oor lifecycles. The latest technology means that a fl oor’s lifespan can approach two decades.
Versatility. For emergency rooms, nursing stations, patient rooms, or hallways, vinyl fl ooring is the preferred choice of the A&D community. The variety of patterns and colors and ease of maintenance is a win-win situation for designers, builders, contractors, installers, facility managers, and patients.
Safety. Healthcare-facility managers choose resilient fl ooring over other materials because of its major sanitary advantages. According to the Resilient Floor Covering Institute, LaGrange, GA, the material is tested for slip resistance and designed for better IAQ.
Strength and beauty
As important as all these considerations are, however, designers want fl ooring that also looks good. Vinyl fl ooring is available in vibrant colors and soothing neutrals that keep their sheen throughout the product’s lifecycle. Ensuring that a product remains colorful and brilliant equates to a better recuperative environment. Vinyl fl ooring can provide an at-home or spa-like feel to an environment, which can promote faster healing.
In addition, color and pattern can provide a better sense of direction or wayfi nding for hospitals, enabling patients and visitors to navigate more easily through hospital corridors and healthcare facilities. Resilient fl ooring provides a way for hospitals and healthcare facilities to rest assured that the investment they make in fl ooring surfaces literally stays true to form and function over its entire life.
Catherine Del Vecchio is brand and marketing manager for Gerfl or USA, Bensenville, IL
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BIM Marks New Path To Sustainable Design
Building-information modeling helps designers plan buildings to meet green standards and streamline the construction process.
A2009 study by the American Institute of Architects, Washington, reported that about 20% of surveyed U.S. cities with populations greater than 50,000 had adopted green-building policies. Ranging from incentives to formal restrictions and building codes, the policies span changes in land use, design, construction, and operation of new and existing buildings. Architects report that clients, who are well aware of policies related to sustainable design and are alert to the effect on their businesses, look to building-industry professionals for help complying with the policies. These policies represent a signifi cant new opportunity for design professionals. The industry needs design ideas that improve effi ciency and energy performance, as well as
A highly detailed rendering, completed with building-information modeling, provides an excellent representation of the Consolidated Forensic Laboratory, Washington.
strategies to meet green-building requirements to reduce carbon emissions and use of natural resources. Building-information modeling (BIM) can help reach those design solutions.
A shift in thinking
For the past decade, BIM technology has ignited the design and construction industry and is quickly becoming a mainstream method driving business-model and process changes. A 2009 McGraw Hill Construction Report on the business value of BIM found that its adoption by architects, engineers, and contractors increased 75% between 2007 and 2009 and that 2/3 of respondents expected to use BIM on most of their projects by 2011.
The architectural fi rm HOK, St. Louis, is a leading BIM adopter and a leader in sustainable design. HOK, which has been serving clients materials, and regulations governing the project and producing complex architectural projects location. for more than 55 years, declared sustainable Building-rating or -certifi cation systems design a core value in the early 1990s. In 2005, signify that a project has met sustainability the fi rm adopted the buildingSMART business criteria established by an organization of strategy, with a focus on the use of “smart” multiexperts, such as the Leadership in Energy and dimensional, dynamic building models in an Environmental Design (LEED) rating system innovative collaborative team- and informationfrom the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), oriented process. Washington, and overseen by the affi liated
At HOK, BIM is the required platform Green Building Certifi cation Institute (GBCI), for all new projects. The fi rm’s commitment Washington. To qualify for LEED certifi cation, to BIM extends beyond its own projects to projects must demonstrate the achievement of direct involvement in shaping the industry a specifi ed number of factors from areas that adoption of this innovative process. HOK’s chief include site, water, energy, materials, indoor executive offi cer, Patrick MacLeamy, FAIA, is environment, innovation, and regional priorities. also the chair of buildingSMART International Another system is Green Globes, a guidanceLtd., Washington, and-assessment system a an organization offered by the Green o responsible for driving What Is BIM? Building Initiative B the development of standards and processes to foster B IM is an intelligent, model-based process founded on the concept of (GBI), Portland, OR. Green Globes certifi es projects based on ( G p the adoption of BIM parametric, information-rich data structures an environmental a through interoperability. based on building elements. The shift from assessment that a In the U.S., the tabulates points in the t member organization the drawing metaphor underlying computercategories of energy, c is the buildingSMART aided drafting (CAD) systems to a modelindoor environment, i Alliance, a council of based process means that practitioners must site, water, resources, s the National Institute of Building Sciences, develop new ways of working and thinking emissions, and project/environmental e p Washington. about their projects. Further, a model-based management.m process provides insight that can lead to Beyond the drawing board faster decision making and better use of Start to certifi ed fi nish S c Revit, from Autodesk economic and environmental resources. How does BIM assist H Inc., San Rafael, CA, is a Today, BIM extends well beyond the auwhen projects are w family of software applithoring of a model for the purposes of hightargeting points under t cations that specifi cally support design, analysis, quality design. The BIM process runs from a sustainable rating or certifi cation system? a c documentation, and project inception through design, construcBased on preliminary B construction of BIM projtion, and ultimately to a building’s operations project information, p ects. “We are close to and management. The information platform project teams develop p 100% implementation of a strategy for credits a BIM based on Revit on represented by BIM has the potential to or points that can be o our projects,” said James deliver insight for better business results for achieved. Decisions a Vandezande, AIA, senior all stakeholders in a project. made about siting m associate, and director or massing of new o of HOK buildingSMART. construction have c “BuildingSMART improves the effectiveness of a tremendous impact on the project’s ability the relationship between architects, engineers, to meet targets for site or energy effi ciency. owners, and contractors.” Recent innovations in BIM tools help designers
With BIM, designers can consider a make more well-informed decisions at this key project’s goals for sustainability and leverage point. Design software can produce conceptual the rich information in the model to conduct building-information models in a vendor-neutral analysis on important characteristics. Will the format, such as gbxm (http://www.gbxml. design perform in terms of energy effi ciency? org/aboutgbxml.php), which allows data to Will targets for daylighting and view access of be brought into tools that perform sustainable interior spaces be achieved? Designers also analyses. can evaluate other solutions in terms of the For example, Autodesk Ecotect analysis particulars of the site, the climate, naturalsoftware provides insight about daylighting, resource use, cost and availability of regional thermal performance, effi ciency related to solar
BIM gives the viewer “X-ray vision” into the atrium of the Consolidated Forensic Laboratory.
The laboratory’s integrated façade began as a closed double skin. However, studies determined that a closed system offered little benefi t in Washington’s climate. An automated solar-control louver system was designed using BIM. More studies, including printing 3-D models, determined the aesthetics of the design as well as the exact location and orientation to maximize shading and solar control. BIM also provided detailed drawings of how the system would look with the louvers in various positions.
gain, airfl ow, and shadows. Similarly, Autodesk’s Green Building Studio Web-based service has tools to provide whole-building energy modeling, carbon-emissions reporting, daylighting, water, ventilation, and Energy-Star scores. These tools address the critical issue of energy modeling at the early stage of design. Energy modeling throughout the design process must demonstrate that a project is well-designed to achieve goals for effi ciency.
Mary Ann Lazarus, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C, HOK vice president and director of sustainability, and Gerry Faubert, CE, LEED AP, HOK vice president and director of integrated design, clarifi ed the fi rm’s approach to sustainable design. “Our commitment to sustainable design underscores the fi rm’s unique approach to decision making,” said Lazarus. “We engage owners early on to identify targets for energy reduction or sustainability. Clients seek effi cient responses to the many requirements of their projects without undue cost burdens. Design professionals should have the expertise to provide solutions, ultimately to fi nd the best options.”
Faubert added, “The spirit of collaboration enables us to get the problems on the table and ultimately fi nd the best options. Often, the design team must consider trade-offs. The reality of the issues associated with climate and place are specifi c to the location of the project.”
As an example, the HOK team cites a project in Washington, the Consolidated Forensics Laboratory, which recently received a BIM Excellence Award from the AIA Technology in Architectural Practice Committee. The team’s collaborative process enabled it to achieve excellent levels of environmental, schedule, and cost effectiveness.
Locally green
A growing area of green-building policy is the modifi cation of local or state codes to incorporate sustainable requirements. In California, compliance with the CALGreen code became mandatory in 2011. The code addresses construction waste, material, and energy use in buildings, and environmental impact of construction and building occupation.
Later this year, the International Code Council (ICC), Washington, along with the AIA and ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, will finalize the International Green Construction Code (IGCC), an overlay to the ICC’s suite of I-Codes. IGCC contributors include USGBC; the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Atlanta; and the Illuminating Engineering Society, New York.
The provisions of the IGCC are based on the same list of key factors as the rating and certifi cation systems described above. Each jurisdiction will have an infl uence over the specifi c priorities among these factors. Additional project electives provide clients and design teams more fl exibility. The ability to use intelligent models for analyses related to daylighting, solar factors, thermal comfort, water, energy, materials quantities, and siting factors will help project teams meet IGCC requirements.
IGCC offers different approaches to satisfy code requirements, known as compliance paths: • for buildings less than 25,000 sq. ft.: a prescriptive path that outlines requirements for building air leakage, mechanical systems, water heating, and pipe insulations. In this case, building-information modeling provides a platform for resolving and documenting prescriptive requirements. • for buildings exceeding 25,000 sq. ft.: a performance-based path incorporating scores such as the Zero Energy Performance Indicator (zEPI), which calculates a project’s deviation from the ideal of zero net energy. A project’s zEPI score is a function of the total annual energy anticipated for the design, the savings from on-site renewables, comparison with the total energy anticipated for a standard reference design, and annual energy savings from waste energy recovery. BIM analysis can contribute insight for calculating the total annual energy needed for proposed designs. • an outcome-based path, which focuses on actual net energy performance over a period of time defi ned by the jurisdiction. At this time, BIM tools do not specifi cally address the need to track actual performance once projects are completed. • an energy-use intensity path based on EPA energy-performance scores. While current BIM tools do not track energy-use intensity, as owners adopt BIM processes for facilities and energy management, the building-information model can grow into a more valuable contributor to these calculations.
As these new green codes emerge and become binding in communities, BIM-enabled project teams will be in a position to use building-information models for analysis and documentation methods for code compliance. These models can streamline the development of energy modeling and other performance analyses. Similarly, models may be helpful in addressing the emerging policy of buildingasset labeling, which has been launched in several cities and is in a pilot stage in Massachusetts.
Sustainable materials
While energy is a major focus under IGCC, building materials and products are important consid
erations, too. Manufacturers realize the value of been doing this for fi ve years without BIM, having their products and capabilities, especially but knowing what materials are available is with regard to sustainable characteristics, easily aca different story. And being able to retain the cessible. As a result, commercial-building product internal and external knowledge about products information is increasingly available through BIM. and how they have performed on our projects Tools, such as the Autodesk Seek Web service, when considering what to specify would have present huge searchable daeven greater value.” tabases with which products can be assessed, compared, Relevant data and geometry Mark Kalin, FAIA, FCSI, LEED, principal of Kalin and selected. Relevant data for each building element Associates, Newton, MA, and and geometry for each building fellow of the Construction element can be introduced into can be brought into design Specifi cations Institute, design models to respond to Alexandria, VA, works with green-building certifi cation or models to respond to dozens of architectural fi rms code requirements. Platforms of building green-building certifi cation on a wide range of projects and understands BIM’s impact products, such as e-commerce sites fi lled with sustainable or code requirements. on product selection and integration. “Modeling creates building elements, could take new opportunities,” he said. us beyond the current methods “But we still have a ways to go. of calculating carbon impact to If a LEED project administrator consideration of embodied energy, the energy- and could look into a model to fi gure out which carbon-emissions represented by the manufacture product could be selected to contribute to LEED of the product, and even to the excavation of the credits, that would be incredibly interesting. The raw materials needed to produce it. siren of sustainability is so loud that it’s hard to
“It is possible to do some quantifi cation hear anything else.” of recycled content, to tag elements, collect At the same time, Kalin has seen a massive them across the model,” Lazarus said. “We’ve shift to BIM on the part of design fi rms, and it is
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follow us on changing his business. “Now I get a model every day of the week from the designers that hire my fi rm. Everyone wants to shake the model and catch the specifi cations information as it falls out. There is so much time and cost pressure on projects these days. Although we haven’t been able to get the data just by shaking the model, we are seeing the model as leading to fewer specifi cations re-dos. It helps me get closer to the design team. It makes my contributions more valuable and engenders loyalty.”
HOK’s Vandezande agrees. “We are focused on business transformation, which includes a BIM process. We’re modeling buildings virtually and we must deliver the virtual building with the utmost level of quality.” Firms that have made the move to a BIM process—whether in architecture, engineering, or construction—have observed positive changes required for the professional and the project team. With HOK, the emphasis on collaboration is a key.
“BIM is more about coordination and collaboration than about being profi cient with a specifi c tool or using a cutting-edge technology on a task,” Vandezande said. “We’re very committed to the integrated project delivery (IPD) process, even though for many architects, engineers, and contractors, the collaboration model of IPD is completely alien. We are very focused on collaboration as a competency that dovetails with training. Our fi rm is moving away from drawings as actual deliverables. Where today we are based on paper systems, HOK sees a future where the model will rule over a decision in the event of a disagreement. The model may become the backbone of our work in sustainable design.”
The integration of building-information modeling with integrated project delivery is in its infancy. While the application of BIM for sustainability goals has been around for a while, these are still strikingly innovative techniques. The tools and the implementation methods are evolving rapidly.
The adoption at the state and local level is accelerating, clients are moving fast to stay abreast of the changes, and design and construction professionals seek a position of strength through collaboration, technical insight, and technology leadership. BIM and IPD will help them get there.
Erin Rae Hoffer, AIA, CSI LEED AP is an industry strategy and relations manager at Autodesk Inc., San Rafael, CA. An architect with 25 years of experience in technology and practice, Hoffer is pursuing a Ph.D. in sustainable policy.
