The frustration was evident on Diane Kolaritsch’s face as she pointed to the projection on the screen behind her. The audience could see a building construction time line; and there was an X about three quarters of the way along indicating where, as Head of Sustainable Development for Swire properties, Kolaritsch and her team got involved in the design and build of several case studies of residential and commercial developments.
The stage she pointed towards was detailed planning and construction stages. At three quarters of the way along the time line it was clear that layers of decisions had already been made and the green strategy would have to sit on top of them rather than being built in from day one.
So while Kolaritsch was able to implement significant measures that reduced energy and water consumption in all buildings, both she and now her employer realise how much more could have been achieved had she been involved from day one. From the case study projects she worked on Swire has learnt a lesson. “We will now look at green strategy at the early stages”, she concludes. Though not phrased using the precide words, what they learnt was a lesson in integrated design.
Where integrated design works
Swire’s experience, while more scientific in process than many, is not uncommon. A paradigm shift is taking place globally and the building and construction process is changing forever. Not only is the approach sustainable, and in fact preferred by green building rating systems such as LEED, it also saves money, time and improves quality of outcome dramatically.
The idea behind integrated design is a multidisciplinary process that engages every one from government and utilities through to contractors and operators at the very preliminary stages of a new build or retrofit project. Rather than assigning duties and collecting anonymous tenders team members are consulted early to produce the most cost effective and appropriate design solution.
Outstanding benefits
People taking advantage of this process face the following:
- a new approach to procurement that reduces risk
- a more efficient work flow
- better access to financing
- faster build time
- reduced or eliminated claims
- better transparency
- increased end-user satisfaction
- reduced bureaucratic hurdles
- dramatically decreased operational costs
- building with a longer operational lifespan
The approach can be taken on projects large and small and will usually involve all stake holders including targeted end-user representatives, potential operators and maintenance folk though to suppliers of all sorts of products from air-conditioning to flooring. Being part of this initial team does not guarantee you the job and rather than being a building designed by committee the integrated design process requires strong leaders willing to listen and make decisions.
That integrated design and development is becoming the new standard for cost effective, efficient and sustainable design and development became clear to delegates at the GreenBuild Asia conference. GreenBuild Asia is a very different type of event where the audience, primarily project owners, had the opportunity to meet and discuss their pre-tender stage project and have the audience respond to their queries and offer suggestions as to what technology, consultant or approach might help them.
Just like the workshops (sometimes known as design charettes) that precede design, engineering, and in some cases even site selection, in integrated building projects, the conference pulled out issues that particular project owners are really facing. For example, Stephen Tang Man- Bun, Head (Kaitak Office), Civil Engineering and Development Dept., Government of the HKSAR, responsible for the redevelopment of the Kaitak redevelopment project in Hong Kong discussed his choice of a district cooling system on their site, delegates from Ken Holdings (a niche Malaysian green developer) and the Indonesian Green Building Council jumped in to offer their experiences – countering the popular wisdom that district cooling is necessarily better and discussing what efficiency is achievable and what might be expected.
What should be integrated?
Calling it integrated ‘design’ is a limiting misnomer. True architects have been an important part of developing the concept, integration covers elements found across the whole building life cycle – especially elements related to financing and pricing.
Topics that should definitely be on the list of things to discuss in the Charette include:
Getting green building accreditation – is it worth getting green building accreditation? Is the goal of creating the green building to increase efficiency, health and increase operational costs or is marketability a significant part of the reason for going green?
The role of BIM – Building information modeling (BIM) has been a fantastic enabler of life-cycle analysis and performance testing in green buildings. Now there are softwares that not only allow modeling during design and construction stage but can then be passed on as as built plans to operations managers. This has traditionally been a sticking point as in many instances the ‘as built’ plans are not always accurate – if there has been an integrated approach taken from day one many potential conflicts between projects teams and operational staff my be identified in advance.
Integrating real estate and green leases – integrated design takes into account more than building orientation and easy to clean sunshades. Green leasing (where landlords and tenants contract to work together for mutual benefit to reduce energy consumption and other environmental goals) can be discussed in advance and can be prepared for in advance. For example you can install the relevant floor to floor metering and sensors for tenants to monitor energy usage most efficiently.
Accessing financing for products and build cost – Some technologies and techniques are costly and with an integrated approach you can discover, from group opinion and experience, whether it will be worth implementing them. These calculations can then be relied upon in order to gain financing.
Role of project management – rather than design by committee both internal and external project managers need to have clear roles and authority. Responsibilities should be allocated to those best able to understand and appreciate risk.
Leveraging technology and building automation systems – With and integrated approach to building design comes an integrated approach to management of technology with systems necessarily being tested in advance.
Interior design – while many green building schemes include design guides, with operators and end users being involved in the process these guides can be better informed and their compilation can begin early.
This list continues but other important topics that the life-cycle approach will throw up include:
- Architect and and engineer relationship
- Engaging operators in design stages
- Engaging end-users
- Leveraging relationships with government and regulatory bodies
- Contractor cost reduction partnerships
- Leveraging utilities cost reduction opportunities
Standards and accreditation
Previously project owners would look to get their buildings certified as LEED or some other locally relevant standard. Then find that these buildings did not perform as well as some other non-rated buildings. This was often because these green building rating systems were created during the band aid era, simply replacing parts of an existing design with ‘greener’ alternatives. Now the integrated approach calls for a life-cycle assessment, where rating systems can be used as guidelines to inform about appropriate materials selection.
Beyond the band aid approach and underlying all next generation green building efforts is a simple premise that may prove the greatest challenge to adoption: People are going to have to listen to each other. They are going to have to stop keeping secrets, they will need to hand over plans, they will need to weigh in someone else’s opinion. In short, they will have to work as a team.
