Sustainability will have moved from niche construction projects to mainstream architecture by 2019. Pete Baxter of Autodesk outlines why the construction industry must embrace green or be left behind

If only sustainability in the construction industry had a clear and present deadline – and that there was more cohesion amongst the disparate authorities on how to go about becoming green. This would result in much greater clarity for the construction community on what has to be achieved, by whom and when.

Sweeping legislative changes have been made across the geographic board to reduce the pollution generated – and energy consumed – by the industry.  With its goal of 20% energy reduction by 2020, the EU’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive will have a major impact on the architects and other design professionals who must design to meet its requirements. In addition, the directive was modified last year to include building renovations – a kind of ‘green makeover’ – and it is mooted that from 2019, new buildings must produce more energy than they consume. 

Although many architects are aware of building information modelling (BIM) and the efficiencies it can bring to projects, fewer know the role BIM can play in enabling sustainable design principles to be explored in a co-ordinated and considered way.

BIM is an innovative method of seamlessly bridging communication within the architecture, engineering and construction industries. With BIM, architects and engineers efficiently generate and exchange information, create digital representations of all stages of the building process and simulate real world performance, streamlining workflow, increasing productivity and improving quality.

An integrated BIM workflow – the cornerstone of software like Revit – enables architects to use digital information to design, simulate, visualise and manage projects, all before they are built, and – critically – to monitor their performance, improve their usefulness, and extend their useable life. The consequence for architects is that they can reach more informed decisions much earlier in the design process, helping to deliver projects that are green and lean.

Sustainability is not an after-thought; rather, real sustainable design begins when a project is first conceived. Because a green building is one where the consequences of site, aspect, waste, lighting and ventilation – among others – all contribute to the sustainable goal, the building must be considered holistically from the start. 

BIM software is intuitive, so it also helps designers understand how a building fits together –. Using a BIM model, designers can quickly produce any number of concepts and arrive at the optimum building design. By entering the relevant information during the design process, designers can even schedule the percentage of recycled materials to be used or the embodied energy in a project. Or they can take it a step further and export  the data for detailed analysis to measure the building’s operational performance. 

Further, running a performance analysis through software like Ecotect, for example, will give the designer an indication of performance at the concept stage. This might include luminance – the daylight levels – that would provide insight into the lighting requirements within a space or the potential for reducing reliance on artificial light and associated power requirements.

There will also be implications for heating and cooling the building by changing the materials used to construct it. The designer could test incorporating a wall with embedded photovoltaic panels that take advantage of solar energy. They could assess the impact of solar radiation on the building fabric and amend it to mitigate the effects of heat gain. Other tools, like Green Building Studio, enable fast and accurate whole-building analysis of energy, water and carbon emissions that let the design teams evaluate the carbon footprint of buildings, rather than outsourcing the task. All of this means that designers will start to get feedback very early in a project, allowing them to adopt the best strategy for each element of the building, its site or its orientation, which will ultimately contribute to the building’s sustainable end goal.

Whilst legislation continues to develop, design teams may continue with the more conventional approach of project design and development . But not for long – the time will soon come when they have no option but to work to sustainable design principles. By contrast, many forward thinkers in the architectural community are totally focused on sustainability, even using it as a business differentiator and driver – tapping into the issues of bio-diversity and ecology in addition to that of energy saving.

I have absolutely no doubt that those in the construction community who will be here for the long term will be those who embrace change rather than have it thrust upon them.

Pete Baxter, Autodesk   Tel: 01252 456600