A Holistic Approach to Building Design and Construction

Delia Tacheny
INT 322 - Building Systems

Weekly Summary

This first chapter addressed, as titled, the "Holistic Approach to Design and Construction" especially as it pertains to pursuing sustainability throughout the design process.

Interior Designers have ethical, moral, and legal responsibilities in their industry. Legally, they are responsible for protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the public. Ethically, they have a responsibility to the environment. And morally, they must execute their decisions based on moral right and wrong. When I think of the word sustainability, I often think of merely protecting the environment. However, this chapter talked about how sustainability encompasses environmental concerns, economical concerns, and social concerns -- all three are vitally important to creating a truly sustainable society.

BIM (Building Information Model) is a more sustainable approach to the design process, involving all stakeholders in the project earlier on in the process. This 3D model allows for corrections to be made throughout the design process, within a computer program, rather than corrections being made on site. This supposedly reduces waste during fabrication and building assembly.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is one of the most well-known and highly respected Green Building Rating Systems. Through LEED, professionals in relevant industries can become LEED Accredited Professionals, and designs can become LEED certified based on meeting a certain level of criteria. The levels of LEED building certification are Platinum Certified, Gold Certified, Silver Certified, and Certified. Various other Green Building Rating Systems exist, each with varying Priorities. 

The reading also discussed various Theories of Sustainable Design, created by certain individuals and groups. Amongst these are as follows: The Natural Step, Ecological Design, Pattern Language, Hannover Principles, Biomimicry, Permaculture, the National Park Service, Cradle to Cradle, Biophilia/Biophilic Design, and Ecological Footprint. 

To discuss a few of these in more depth,

The Natural Step has four principles of sustainability: 

"To become a sustainable society, we must eliminate our contributions to:

 1) The systematic increase in concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth's crust,

 2) The systematic increase in concentrations of substances produced by society,

 3) The systematic physical degradation of nature and natural processes, and

 4) Conditions that systematically undermine people's capacity to meet their basic human needs."

I found the Pattern Language description to be intriguing -- specifically, Christopher Alexander's idea that our increasingly energy efficient buildings have become more sterile and therefore fail to meet basic human emotional needs. This plays into a psychological topic, and points back to the idea that sustainability includes a social aspect as well as an environmental one.

I was also rather intrigued by both the Biomimicry idea as well as the Biophilia/ Biophilic Design idea. I love both plants and the idea of creating a fresh, organic environment in a space. That being said, the idea of mimicking nature to solve human problems and/or simply integrating natural elements into a space is rather appealing to me in the industry of design. 

In addition to Green Building Rating Systems, there are also Sustainable Rating Systems for various building products and components. There are three categories of Rating: 3rd Party Rating, which is the most rigorous review, conducted by an outside organization; 2nd Party Rating is when the industry itself provides it's own certification; and 1st Party Rating.

A couple examples of 3rd Party Ratings are the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) which certifies wood products, and Cradle-to-Cradle which looks at the entire life cycle of a product -- this rating is fairly rare amongst products. An example of a 2nd Party Rating is the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) which provides ratings for its own products.

Lastly, the book discussed the various team members of a building project. In particular, it listed: the Architect, Engineer, Interior Designer, General Contractor, Owner, Specialists, and a LEED Accredited Professional. Each team member has an important and distinct role in the Design and Construction Process.

Evaluating an Interior Space

I spent quite a while working on homework in the Interior Design Studio (2nd Floor of HWAC) last night, thinking it would be a good location to focus and be creative. However, I had a rather different experience. The empty studio space, completely enclosed, felt cold, eerie, and uninviting. The bright white walls along with the bright white lights made the space feel sterile, with little to no warmth. To add, there is merely a concrete floor and the desks are basically all empty. 

Physically, I felt tired and overstimulated, and couldn't quite get comfortable no matter what I tried. Emotionally, I was unmotivated, stressed, and mentally drained. Spiritually, I found very little inspiration or satisfaction in my surroundings. I also felt very alone. It was quiet in one sense, but because of the room's high ceilings and construction, it's a very echoing room, and the building systems make a lot of weird noises throughout the night. For one person to be in such a large, echoing, enclosed space is a very strange experience. It wasn't a good type of silence. 

I had chosen the Studio space, because I thought my room would be TOO comfortable, but comparing the two, I think I would have felt more energized and focused in a comfortable, warm, ambient environment like my room.