Regenerative Design

 Hawaii Preparatory Academy Energy Laboratory Case Study

                              

Since the advent of sustainable development and the creation of green building systems, many ideas of what a green building truly is have become common knowledge. It is agreed upon notion that green buildings perform at a higher inefficiency compared to standard buildings in regards to energy and water use, create healthier interior environments, and responsibly use materials and resources. How well the building performs in all these categories is typically left to the judgement of the owner and their specifications or a green building rating system. These systems reward buildings for reducing their resource consumption by a specified percentage, which is certainly a step in the right direction.

Regenerative buildings proposes a higher standard for green buildings. These buildings go beyond by not only accounting for their own energy and resource use, but by having a net-positive effect on the surrounding site. This net-positive effect can manifest in several different ways. Restoring lost habitats and a site's natural hydrology are often the most obvious ecology effects regenerative buildings have on the surrounding environment. In urban areas the benefits of a regenerative building can include urban agricultural systems, an excess production of energy to share with surrounding buildings, restoring and recharging ground water systems, or creating niche habitats for locally displaced animals and plants. The distincition for regenerative buildings compared to traditional green buildings is to reverse damage done to a site through all systems involved, both biotic and abiotic, requiring a different engagement by the design team and all other involved parties.

The Hawaii Preparatory Academy (HPA) Energy Laboratory by Flansburgh Architects is an excellent example of a regenerative building. Completed in 2010, the project was awarded LEED Platinum and was certified under the rigorous Living Building Challenge in 2011. The 5900 square foot high school laboratory is capable of generating 38,994 kWh from photovoltaic and windmill sources while only consumes 19,090 kWh, leaving 52% of all energy generated to be feed back into the grid. 

To help reduce the possible energy loads, the entire building is naturally ventilated and uses an experimental radiant cooling system instead of a conventional air conditioning system. This radiant cooling system functions by circulating water through thermal roof panels at night which is cooled by the low night temperatures and is then stored below-grade. Automated louvers and wood screens help regulate direct light into the building and exhaust fans can be activated via sensors if greater airflow is needed.

                                    

The building is also capable of harvesting 6,953 gallons of rainwater per year, with an estimated use of 4,932 gallons annually. The harvested water is filtered and used for drinking and low flow fixtures throughout the building. Waste water is disposed over a larger field after being treated on-site, and is allowed to percolate through deeper soils before entering the ground water.

The site chosen for the lab allows for prevailing winds to aid in naturally ventilating the project and provides views towards the nearby Mauna Kea volcano. The site was restored during construction as it was previously used as the bio waste dumping area for the HPA campus. The building takes advantage of the favorable climate and views by featuring open courtyards for students and classes and the use of operable glass doors to further open the building.

More information and specifications regarding the HPA Energy Laboratory can be found here.

                               

Designing for Deconstruction and Smarter Construction 

Cellophane House Case Study

The environmental impacts of the construction industry far outweigh other industry worldwide. Extraction, construction, and ultimately demolition create huge amounts of waste that is sent to landfills. Many organizations and movements have started to curb the amount of waste generated in virtually every industry. In the construction industry, these have manifested themselves in green building rating systems such as LEED, stricter building regulations, environmental agencies , and even greater owner expectations. These initiatives tend to focus on the extraction, manufacturing, and construction processes when a building is being designed and constructed and its possible effects seem most apparent. 

An important concept of sustainable construction is the lifetime of buildings and the constituent parts. Ideal properties of these materials include their durability and resilience, among others. It is when the materials, and ultimately the building, reach their end of life that the initial efforts to design a "greener" building are undone and the building is demolished. The previously mentioned organizations and movements account for the creation and use of buildings, yet the final stages of a building's life cycle are often left unresolved.

Design for Deconstruction (DfD) proposes that buildings be imagined as a temporary installation, with the ability to be easily dismantled. To maximize its potential, DfD must be incorporated early in the design process as an intended and serious goal. The possibility of deconstruction requires designers to reimagine material joints and connections and how (and in what order) the building will be assembled and finally disassembled. 

Deconstruction is most easily applied to structural systems for buildings, however it is important to consider the possibilities in all applications of this method. Interior finishes are often glued to each other using strong adhesives that would prevent any material from being removed from the assembly. Bolted and grooved joints between materials allows easy construction and deconstruction as most pieces fit in place while also removing adhesives from the building that could potentially contaminate indoor air quality.

As an example of a successful project that is readily deconstructed, the Cellophane House by Kieren Timberlake was designed for a 3 month exhibit in 2008 for the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The project imagines itself as assembled rather than constructed, and so the design used simple removable connections between building elements that did not require specialized tools or labor. The common modular dimension of the aluminum frame was used to their advantage, preventing any cutting and possible waste of pieces and allowing the construction process to continue even quicker. The partitioning system snaps into the frame and is able to be easily added or removed without affecting the structural systems. The ease in construction and concise design allows the project to be quickly assembled and disassembled and requires minimal space for transportation, fitting in the back of  a single trailer. 

The transition from design to construction was made easier through the application of Building Information Modeling (BIM), giving the designers a high degree of precision while also being able to monitor different statistics regarding the materials used such as weight and recycled content. By dividing the house into specific segments, much of the project was completed off-site leading to a   quick and efficient construction process while minimizing any possible errors. On-site, the segments simply had to be hoisted into position and bolted together. Computer modeling and modularity also allowed the designers to easily and quickly be able to reuse the same kit of parts used to create the Cellophane House seen in the MoMA and redesign the spatial configuration of the house without the addition of any extra materials for mass customization purposes, showing the flexibility of the design.