• Health care facilities are increasingly looking for ways to further their sustainability mission.
• Microban technologies address both product cleanliness and sustainability concerns for health care environments, delivering a dual benefit.

The first two decades of the 21st century have presented the world’s health care industry with two catastrophes: a global pandemic that pushed care systems to the point of collapse and ever-worsening global climate change that is causing natural disasters, threatening communities, and making everything more difficult.

Considering it’s an industry built on responding to emergencies, it should come as no surprise that the health care sector is finding new ways to respond to these challenges—right down to how their hospitals and clinics are built and maintained. Part of that effort includes using materials that are both environmentally friendly and help keep facilities cleaner.

Redefining “Clean”

“Clean” is top of mind now more than ever post-pandemic, but what does it mean to be clean, exactly? And just what does this need to look like?

Incorporating antimicrobial additives into clinical surfaces at the point of manufacture is an integral part of ongoing plans to enhance product cleanliness in health care environments. The health care sector was expected to experience the fastest annual growth rate of all the industries relying on antimicrobial technologies between 2022 and 2030, according to a report by Grand View Research. Leaders in the industry say efforts must be made to keep up with growing demands.

Enter Microban International—home to two of the most trusted and well-known global brands in the antimicrobial, odor control, and continuously active disinfection and sanitization markets. Their proactive solutions keep products cleaner by preventing microbial problems before they start. For more than 40 years Microban has been innovating to produce technologies that enhance medical products and more all over the globe.

Our technologies keep treated surfaces cleaner between cleanings and are a complement to good hygiene practices.

Microban® technologies are especially useful in health care settings. “Our technologies keep treated surfaces cleaner between cleanings and are a complement to good hygiene practices,” says Michael Ruby, president at Microban.

While disinfectants wipe out bacteria on surfaces, they are only a temporary solution. It takes just moments for bacteria to begin propagating on an untreated surface after cleaning. “You start over. That untreated surface starts to bloom again,” Ruby says.

Microban technologies work 24/7 to cap the number of microbes that grow on a surface. Treated surfaces aren’t sterile, but microbe populations can be kept in the hundreds rather than the millions. This not only supports regular cleaning and disinfection routines but also extends the longevity of products and surfaces. These solutions can be engineered into practically any product or surface during manufacture to deliver permanent product protection against degrading microbial growth—including a broad-spectrum of bacteria and fungi.

It’s solutions like these that lead to cleaner health care environments and more positive patient experiences. Ruby says Microban antimicrobial technologies should be considered for all high-touch, high-traffic, and cleanliness-critical areas in health care spaces. “By keeping products and surfaces cleaner, built-in antimicrobial solutions deliver added peace of mind for health care workers and patients. These technologies should also be considered for products that can replace single-use items and those that are harder to keep clean.”

Sustainable Solutions

Photo courtesy of Microban

Microban offers a wide range of antimicrobial technologies based on more sustainable active ingredients. These solutions are favored by architects, specifiers, builders, and building occupants who are seeking more durable and longer-lasting supplies. Their technologies can benefit many spaces across health care facilities, especially with solutions like Ascera, MicroGuard, and LapisShield—all on exhibit at this year’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo.

Ascera is an antimicrobial technology inspired by nature that offers continuous product protection against bacterial growth for olefinic polymers and solvent-based coatings. (The Microban technology used in Ascera is similar to acids found in nature and is used in multiple consumer product applications. Ascera technologies are currently only available for sale in the United States and Asia.)

MicroGuard is a line of metal-free antifungal additives for PVC, PU, and EVA applications, offering an effective alternative to arsenic-based formulations.

LapisShield is a heavy metal-free solution that offers improved quality, stability, and antimicrobial product protection for water-based coatings.

These novel formulations not only deliver lifelong product protection to a wide range of building materials, extending their functional life, they also inherently reduce end-of-life waste generation—another key factor in many health care facilities’ sustainability goals.

Key Benefits

1. Extended Lifespan of Materials

Products featuring Microban’s antimicrobial technology can resist deterioration and degradation caused by microbial growth for the entire life of the product. This prolongs the lifespan of materials and reduces the frequency of replacements or renovations in health care facilities. Fewer replacements mean less waste generation, reduced water and energy consumption, and greater cost savings.

Longer lifespan, of course, also means less materials end up in the landfill. Of the 14,000 tons of waste generated daily in US health care facilities, about 20 to 25% is plastic. More than 90% of plastics, including those used in health care, are not recycled and either reside in landfills or infiltrate natural environments. “When we extend the life of a product we are reducing landfill loading. We’re reducing the need for repurchase and replacement,” Ruby says.

Microban’s solutions promote a circular economy, and design teams will find a wide variety of products available with antimicrobial product protection—including treated concrete; flooring options like carpeting, ceramic tile and grout, vinyl tile and laminate; paints and coatings; and powder-coated door and furniture hardware.

Microban technologies show up in many hospital plastic goods as well, including everything from bedpans and key card holders to keyboards, privacy curtains, and the crash carts used during emergency codes.

The materials require no special handling or extra steps during installation—other than what Ruby calls the most important step. “Look for the Microban Trustmark (on the product or on the packaging).”

2. Decreased Chemical Disinfectant Use

Traditional cleaning and disinfection methods in health care facilities often involve the use of harsh chemical agents. Built-in antimicrobials can supplement these efforts, reducing the frequency and amount of chemical disinfectants needed.

A decrease in the use of chemical disinfectants can lower the release of potentially harmful chemicals into the environment and reduce the carbon footprint associated with their production and transportation.

3. Less Water

Use Surfaces with built-in antimicrobials are often easier to keep clean and maintain because of the inherent resistance to microbial growth. In addition to fewer cleaning supplies needed, this can mean less water is needed for upkeep. Streamlining maintenance practices contributes to resource conservation and cost savings over time.

Microban treatments can also lengthen the life of soft goods like furniture covers, scrubs, sheets, pillows, and footwear. “When you can use those in an environment for a longer time it reduces not only the need to replace them; it also reduces the need to launder them as often,” Ruby says.

And by washing the items less frequently, health care facilities can use fewer harmful detergents, minimize water and energy consumption, and reduce the release of microfibers into the environment.

4. Improved Energy Efficiency

The integration of antimicrobial technology can lead to more efficient systems in health care facilities—including HVAC systems and insulation.

By controlling microbial growth on surfaces these systems may require less energy to operate optimally.

Improved energy efficiency contributes to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, further aligning with many facilities’ sustainability objectives.

5. Durability

Embedded antimicrobials are added to the products at the point of manufacture and become a permanent part of the products. These built-in technologies can offer continuous microbial reduction on a material for the life of the treated product. They also operate a multi-modal attack, making it harder for microbes to become resistant to their effects.

And because Microban technologies are incorporated into the treated product, “The functionality is indelible. It will perform 24/7 for the lifetime of product use,” Ruby says.

Proactive Products

The same technology that prevents surfaces from carrying large loads of microbes also reduces microbial degradation of those surfaces. That means materials will require less maintenance and last longer, reducing the need to replace them. Photo courtesy of Microban

Microban stays focused on innovating and is now working to launch a new range of even more environmentally friendly technologies. Many traditional antimicrobial agents employ the use of heavy metals to deliver functionality. Microban is now developing alternative formulations to meet the ever-evolving needs of brands, manufacturers, and product innovators worldwide.

“We are proud to have developed a series of new technologies that represent the culmination of many years of intensive research,” Ruby says. “These are the first of an exciting series of nature-inspired solutions that address the need for sustainable product protection in different market segments, including health care.”

MicroGuard, mentioned earlier, is a key example. This technology provides high antifungal efficacy for building materials, preventing microbial degradation to extend the useful product lifetime. MicroGuard was developed as a non-leaching antifungal agent with active ingredients that are metal-free, offering an alternative to arsenic-based OBPA—a common antifungal additive—that is causing regulatory concerns.

As the company continues to find new ways to incorporate its technologies into products, Ruby wants to hear more from health care providers about what else might be beneficial. “Microban wants to be part of the system of care that delivers a cleaner, greener planet for all,” he says.

The post Microban Provides Tools for More Sustainable Health Care Environments appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• GGI has been leading the industry with architectural and specialty glass since 1900.
• Alice direct to glass printing can be used for interior design, architectural, and industrial applications inside and out.

For more than a century General Glass International, or GGI, has been a pillar of the glass industry. The company is family-owned and operated (started in 1900 by Max Balik) and specializes in architectural and specialty glass products—from ceramic inks and textures to bird-friendly glass and more.

The first company to bring the technology to the US in 2008, GGI remains at the forefront of digital direct to glass printing in North America.

Stephen Balik, vice president of business development, represents the fifth generation of the family and leads a team focused on innovation through expansion of product offerings and solutions.

Sustainability

Glass contributes to more sustainable buildings in many ways—from daylight maximization to nature views and thermal comfort, Balik says. Glass in buildings allows natural light to penetrate deeper into interiors, reducing the need for artificial lighting and positively impacting the occupants’ well-being by providing a connection to the outside.

Properly designed glass facades can harness solar heat gain, reducing the need for heating during colder months and contributing to energy efficiency and climate control. Using glass to allow sunlight to passively heat the interior spaces can also lead to reduced energy consumption and a more comfortable indoor environment.

Of course, glass also means sight, and views of nature are in demand, Balik says. Transparent glass facades offer occupants access to outside views, which have been proven to improve productivity, reduce stress, and enhance the overall well-being of people. Incorporating glass elements in buildings can support biophilic design principles, fostering a sense of connection to nature and promoting a healthier and more satisfying living or working environment.

Glass can also be more easily recycled than some other building materials, making it even more environmentally friendly.

Innovation in Action

Alice direct-to-glass digital ceramic printing enables any design to be reproduced in glass. Photo courtesy of GGI

With GGI’s Alice® Direct to Glass Printing and opacity control you can have daylighting while incorporating imagery or decorative patterns for privacy and aesthetic benefit. The digital ceramic printing process allows architects, artists, and designers to manipulate art, color, light, and opacity on glass to bring life to any space. A texture or pattern on glass can give the effect of privacy while letting light pass through into an office space or health facility, for example—spaces where people often find themselves inside for long periods of time.

Alice is among GGI’s most impressive products. With it GGI provided a 37-foot tall, double-skinned curtain wall with vented glass layers set 36 inches apart at Tata Hall at Harvard Business School. The design functions as a thermal blanket in colder temperatures and creates a cooling convection in warmer weather. It helped the project earn LEED Platinum. GGI matched wood that the design team sourced from Africa for the project.

“We were handed an actual piece of wood and they simply asked, ‘Can you match this?’ We had never created a replica of a custom material before, but we were ready for the challenge,” Balik says, adding that the success of that project helped GGI go on to launch other exciting faux materials. “We’d never done anything like that before, but we always try to take lessons from past projects and apply them to future product developments.”

A few years later GGI also used the Alice technology at 390 Madison Avenue, a Chase Bank project that involved re-massing a building built in 1955. Balik says it’s another job that uses faux wood materials they could manipulate with light and opacity in a way you couldn’t with real wood. “The Harvard job required some knockouts in the print to allow for natural light to come in, and that also provided some shading in the rooms themselves. While 390 Madison didn’t require knockouts, it did need to be backlit—a different type of lighting challenge solved by opacity control,” he says.

Growing Demand

GGI has seen an increase in consistent funding from cities supporting projects like these, Balik says, and more architects are interested in adopting the technology in their designs—especially as a new way to bring in public art to urban planning. “What once might have been a graffiti mural or a picture hanging on the wall can now be anything from a structural glass windscreen to a full glass curtain wall on a new hospital.”

It’s exciting for us to take traditional styles of existing artwork and convert it into new forms and see installations in previously impossible places.

GGI often works with artists to transform and convert their original artwork to glass, using Alice direct-to-glass printing technology. “It’s exciting for us to take traditional styles of existing artwork and convert it into new forms and see installations in previously impossible places,” Balik says. “We know artists are very close to their work, and we do our best to protect that and their original aesthetic intent. Through our knowledge of the technology and dedication to the sampling process, we develop trusting relationships with the artists. We do our best to explain what’s possible with glass without telling the artist what to do. The possibilities are endless.”

GGI was the first company to adopt such technology in the US more than 15 years ago and has spent years refining the process to get it to what it is today. “There are so many more places where decorative glass can be added to a space than before. It’s really about explaining what’s possible,” Balik says.

Bigger & Better

More than 400 low-e laminated, insulated, digitally printed pieces of glass combine in this 13,000-square-foot design that pays homage to historic murals at Harlem Hospital Center. Photo courtesy of GGI

Decorative glass is not as expensive as some folks may expect either, says Spencer Raymond, director of business development at GGI. “I think people look at some of these projects and expect the price for the decorative portion to be much more than it is. The actual production has become much more efficient to utilize different processes and different colors on the same piece of glass, where silk screening wouldn’t have allowed that. There’s a lot more flexibility.”

For the Harlem Hospital GGI converted existing artwork that was hanging in the lobby of the building using digital photography and produced the design at a reduced opacity so the facade looked backlit at night. From the interior each floor running along the facade looks like abstract art, providing privacy as well as light. The architecture firm HOK had narrowed the choice between GGI or a hand-painted option in Germany for the project.

“Instead of hand-painting in Europe we were able to take high-resolution photos of the artwork and use those files to digitally print the full-scale art. Using a digital process gave us a technical advantage in controlling opacity versus the hand-painted option,” Balik says. “We digitally printed these huge panels and laid them out flat on our factory floor to make sure everything aligned from panel to panel. This project was by far the most ambitious of its kind, leading to a nomination for facade of the year among five finalists.”

He says it’s ambitious projects like these that align with their mentality to keep pushing the envelope to produce groundbreaking work. It was one of the largest projects in North America of its type. “Our foundation and competitive edge is our knowledge of the technology and our ability to communicate with artists,” Balik says. “We’re helping bring ideas to glass and to life.”

The Evolution of Glass

Shadows and light inside the Palo Alto Medical Center. Photo courtesy of GGI

Glass and glazing options have evolved over the years, says Raymond, who’s also grown up in the industry. “Through improvements in hardware and engineered systems, the application choices for glass have grown significantly. Factoring in the durability and nature of ceramic frit, new possibilities of adding decorative components have emerged. You can incorporate design in places you once weren’t able to without sacrificing natural light or building performance.”

Once the digital process was developed for applying ceramic frits the architectural industry recognized it allows for remarkable control of the materials and more flexibility than the silk screening of the past. “What we’re doing is really pushing the hardware and the software side of the process. A lot of it comes down to the software and the programming. It’s the instructions we give when we’re dealing with image files and color layers. It becomes a very complicated process to tell the machine how to lay these pigments and deal with the layering and the glass material.”

Looking Ahead

Balik expects larger glass projects with more complex makeups to continue to be among popular and emerging glass demands. He says glass with more visible light transmission and lower heat gain coefficients are also in demand, as are products that are bird-friendly and easily incorporate daylighting and public art.

GGI offers all of these solutions and more, with more innovations on the way. “Architects should reach out to fabricators, manufacturers, or installers as early as possible to understand what is possible or what solutions exist for their issues,” he says.

The post An Architect’s Guide to Architectural & Specialty Glass appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• Stanford Hospital at 500 Pasteur Drive received LEED Gold certification in 2022.
• Going forward Stanford aims to achieve LEED Gold for every major renovation and construction project.

Stanford University in Palo Alto is home to one hospital system that’s continually exploring the evolving territory of sustainable health care design. Modular construction is one big topic they’ve focused on recently.

Modular design allows spaces to be easily reconfigured depending on what a clinic needs. Offices can become exam rooms or exam rooms can become treatment rooms without the need for large, costly, and material-intensive renovations.

As part of their recent modular construction efforts Stanford Health Care is increasingly turning to vacuum-based plumbing. These systems are easier to reconfigure than traditional gravity-based plumbing and use less water, which is more sustainable and sanitary.

In all building projects Stanford is looking for environmentally friendly and sustainable building materials, flooring, and furnishings—even if that means a larger upfront cost.

“It’s a bit of a learning process as we go, as greener materials become available,” says Molly Fries, Stanford’s interim director of operational excellence. “We do look at things from a life cycle analysis perspective, moving away from just looking at the first cost.”

Photo courtesy of Stanford

Going forward Stanford aims to achieve LEED Gold for every major renovation and construction project. They first received the certification at a new hospital completed in 2019. “It’s quite unusual for a hospital to achieve that,” says Helen Wilmot, Stanford’s chief facilities and sustainability officer. “Stanford is definitely ahead of the curve.”

But achieving LEED certification requires far more than just reducing waste and using greener materials. “The infrastructure is where it’s at. And for a health care building that’s the hardest part,” Wilmot says.

Hospitals face particular challenges when it comes to their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. Hospital HVAC systems are highly specialized to control disease spread. Wilmot says some Stanford facilities have 20 individual zones, all with their own regulated humidity, temperature, airflow, and air pressure.

Designing a system that can accomplish those tasks while also being energy-efficient is difficult. “We have very sophisticated designers to help us with that. We’re asking them to think how to make it more sustainable,” Wilmot says.

Natural gas is another obstacle facing hospitals wanting to go green. In health care settings natural gas is primarily used to make steam, which is used to sanitize medical instruments, cookware, and dishes. The steam is created in an onsite steam plant often powered by natural gas. “We use a lot of natural gas,” Wilmot says. “Producing steam with electrification is not standard.”

She says creating more sustainable systems requires designers, architects, general contractors, and subcontractors to be familiar with health care–specific building needs. And once the facility is built engineers must be trained to keep these innovative systems up and running. “It has to be an entire flow of change that occurs. All the parties along that chain have to be committed,” she says.

As a large academic medical center, Wilmot says Stanford bears a responsibility to lead the way. “We are meant to be a role model for how it is we address human planetary health,” she says. “We cannot do it alone. The architects have to do it with us. The contractors have to do it with us. The suppliers have to do it with us.”

Microban Provides Tools for More Sustainable Health Care Environments

HKS Architects’ Allison Smith on Designing an Earth-Friendly Airport

The post Stanford Health Care is Evolving with the Latest Design Strategies appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• Flexible spaces and innovative flooring are among the latest demands for today’s office.
• Experts from Perkins&Will say businesses continue to want to make work feel more comfortable.
• Bentley Mills is one of the country’s top sustainable flooring manufacturers and recently unveiled its latest designs, including the Culinary Collection.

Stuffy, corporate-feeling environments are becoming a workplace relic, as even large companies known for their strict professionalism strive to make their workplaces feel cozier.

“The idea that an office space needs to feel corporate is changing, and that’s a good thing,” says Ariel Lumry, an interior project designer who’s been working with Perkins&Will for more than three years. “It’s scary for some people, but I think the challenge is exciting.”

While some of the country’s biggest companies have long been enticing workers with amenities like foosball and free snacks, today’s design needs are focused more on wellness and comfort, Lumry says.

At Home in the Office

Designs that feel equally at home, well, in your home or in a hotel are in demand in today’s workplace.

“There used to be a rigid line between designs for health care and corporate and hospitality and residential. Now we’re all borrowing and learning from each other,” Lumry says. “Hospitality, particularly post-pandemic, touches every element of what we do. People want to feel comfortable in their workplace. We have to give them the services and amenities they had at home.”

Hospitality, particularly post-pandemic, touches every element of what we do.

Lumry says a human-centric approach and emphasis on comfort that’s prevalent in hospitality design was missing in corporate interiors until recently. Today even law firms are more apt to incorporate flex spaces like mother’s rooms or areas where other services—say, massage therapy or a place to get your nails done—can be brought in so an attorney doesn’t have to leave the building.

Organic Approach

The design for Long Story Short is timeless and easy to match with virtually any other floor or interior material. Photo courtesy of Bentley

Color and style are part of what makes spaces more comfortable, Lumry says. Many offices also want more access to fresh air and nature views, and they want their interiors to feel light and airy. Perkins&Will is seeing a demand for more neutral tones that are easy to mix and match alongside biophilic designs. The notion of biophilia, too, is changing. It’s not just about greenery.

“Now you’re seeing these shapes and forms be extracted from nature and applied in innovative ways to things like flooring to truly have an impactful psychological effect on how you experience the space,” Lumry says. “It’s the softness and the curves and repetition of patterns that are natural in origin. We automatically relate to it without even realizing it.”

Architects and designers are loving the organic approach to flooring, too.

Calm, Comfortable Carpet & More

There used to be a type of carpet you’d see in an office—bland, one tone, and wall to wall. “It was a very different look than what you would see at home or in a restaurant or in a hotel,” Lumry says. “That’s changing. I’m excited about this more organic approach to the design of carpet—everything from the physical design of it to the colorways. Things are a lot softer, and there are a lot more neutral tones. Everything has a fluid feel, which is fantastic. It allows the designers to be a lot more creative.”

When Perkins&Will looks for flooring, they’re looking just for that—a way to easily mix and match with complementary styles and colors. “I can go in and pull pieces out of a line and create something that looks very custom for my client,” Lumry says. “Part of our job is integrating the brand into a space in a really thoughtful way. When there’s more attention paid to a variety of colorways within different lines of carpet we can use that as a tool to integrate the brand into the design of the space in an elegant way.”

I’m excited about this more organic approach to the design of carpet.

Bentley Mills, one of the country’s top sustainable flooring manufacturers, knows all about designing complementary styles. They recently launched their Culinary Collection alongside hits like Long Story Short and the addition of Classic Rock to their LVT library. The launches come after some big changes for the company, who’s long been committed to the highest environmental standards, having recently moved to use new, more sustainable partners.

“We redesigned our whole library based on new yarn vendors, and that opened up a whole realm of possibilities,” says Victoria deVuono, vice president of product and marketing at Bentley Mills. Today Bentley works with leaders in sustainable fibers like Aquafil and Universal Fibers to develop the very best in carpeting.

Bentley’s in-house three-person design team works together to approach collections holistically today more than ever before. “When we’re designing a color line, for example, we pull all of the colors of the other collections we’ve recently launched to ensure designers have a connected and cohesive Bentley library,” deVuono says.

Their recent launches each stand on their own but work well together with complementary color lines if designers want to mix and match. That’s important, deVuono says, because it’s not often that a client comes in and wants to specify only one product. “It’s incumbent on us to create a series of products that fit well together, not only through patterns and through color but also through price points.”

High-Quality Flooring

Indie Rock LVT from Bentley’s Classic Rock collection. Photo courtesy of Bentley

But Bentley’s designs aren’t just beautiful; they’re also high-performance. Bentley is committed to pushing both their equipment and the fibers to new heights. “We have an extraordinary product design team with not only the experience and skill to innovate within our tool kit, but also the passion,” deVuono says. That way of thinking and creating in new ways is built into their R&D process.

Sustainably speaking Bentley already operates at a high level, given that they are based in California, where green standards far exceed requirements in most other places in the US. Bentley has been manufacturing 100% PVC-free carpet for more than 40 years, they meet the Red List requirements for the Living Building Challenge, and they operate from a LEED Gold–certified manufacturing mill.

Bentley’s Culinary Collection includes three styles—On the Block, From Scratch, and Serve It Up, inspired by the scratch marks left behind in cooking.

“Bentley has always been known to design for luxury, and dynamic patterns like these that are drawn from crafts across mediums and industries are very well-suited to the luxurious, hotel-like feel corporate spaces are taking,” deVuono says. She likens the process of designing architectural interiors to that of preparing a great meal; the designer and chef are both working their craft with the intended purpose of creating an exquisite experience for others, and the Culinary Collection serves up great options for any project.

On the Block’s deep texture, reminiscent of the nicks and grooves of the butcher block, makes an impact, while From Scratch can spice up any space with a bold, large-scale, multi-directional pattern. Serve It Up is more reserved, with an approachable style and simple elegance.

Continuing Color Trends

“Now carpet is something that enhances the design. There’s more of this organic form and seamlessness to the patterning. It’s more timeless and more sustainable too because it stays in the space. It doesn’t get dated quickly,” says Ariel Lumry of Perkins&Will. Photo by Casey Dunn

Bentley is seeing a lot of demand for “peekaboo color,” a specific use of color in a space that captures the idea that something can be colorful without being in your face. “It’s a more muted, sophisticated color, tucked beneath the neutral surface of a carpet,” deVuono says.

She says they’re also seeing continued demand for lighter tones that feel comforting and bring light into the space. “Everyone wants creamier and warmer colors right now,” deVuono says, noting that previously Bentley was known for its darker palettes. “It’s a big shift we’ve been seeing, and we’re taking the moody, edgy Bentley style and applying that level of depth to lighter tones.”

Endless Opportunity

Today’s carpeting really does enhance design, Lumry says. It offers a chance to soften and delineate space as well as provide acoustic benefit. “I can use it creatively, and it’s not limiting in its design.” deVuono says more workplaces want different areas of their offices to feel bespoke, too. “Diversity across spaces and a layer of complexity in designs are drawing people in more.”

But bright colors and harsh patterns have no place in today’s workplace design. Designers and clients alike are looking for styles that are timeless but exciting at the same time. “Coming out of the pandemic everybody wants to be embraced and feel comfortable. It may cycle back to brighter or bolder expressions. but right now it’s all about calming everything down a bit, which I think is interesting,” Lumry says.

We don’t have to compromise on design to make it affordable and sustainable.

And good design doesn’t have to break the bank. The gap has narrowed between what looks expensive and what actually is expensive. “The industry has done a much better job of providing materials and designing products with an approachable, achievable price point that don’t look cheap,” Lumry says. “We don’t have to compromise on design to make it affordable and sustainable.”

Bentley is currently working on expanding its Modern Curator collection, too, to include one style that uses a unique yarn process for a weathered look and another flooring option that looks almost painterly.

Standout Designs

Perkins&Will says the design for Mohr Capital includes a carbon neutral surface solution that mimics the look of natural stone alongside wood flooring and carpet to soften the space. Photo by Casey Dunn

Perkins&Will completed a custom floor design for Mohr Capital in Dallas with designated zones using varied materials repeated strategically to indicate different areas. “We used transitions really thoughtfully to pull you into a different space. Nothing feels segregated, but everything has its own identity,” Lumry says.

The design includes a carbon neutral surface solution that mimics the look of natural stone alongside wood flooring and carpet to soften the space. “It was a very restricted material palette and very strategically implemented,” Lumry says.

Another project under construction now, Stonebriar Financial, also combines flooring materials like wood and carpet in organic patterns to create a comfortable but custom look that’s sustainable and easy to maintain. They’re also using concrete micro-topping. “I like to use different materials to set zones off and give a different feeling to each space. They still flow into each other,” Lumry says. That project is going after LEED Silver.

Today’s flooring options are much more exciting than years past, and the top manufacturers are really taking a cradle to cradle approach, which is vitally important to firms like Perkins&Will, Lumry says. And that emphasis on well-being and commitment to human-centric design is one way their firm makes sustainability exciting to clients. “It’s about creating a better environment for your employees—one they want to be in and come back to, and one they ultimately are more productive in.”

The post Modern Office Design Strategies, from Flooring to Color Trends appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• The New York School of Interior Design (NYSID)’s Master of Professional Studies in Sustainable Interior Environments program is focused on design for deconstruction and more.
• Interior design and architecture professionals from all over the world enroll in the NYSID program in-person and remotely to gain more knowledge in the field of sustainability.

David Bergman has always been interested in the environment—all the way back to when he ran his high school’s ecology club. “We called it ecology back then,” he laughs. “We did paper recycling drives, stuff like that.”

The founder of David Bergman Eco and author of Sustainable Design: A Critical Guide, Bergman is an “eco optimist” who founded the blog EcoOptimism—dedicated to the belief that positive, often symbiotic, solutions exist to our environmental and economic issues.

Today Bergman is the director of sustainability at the New York School of Interior Design (NYSID), where he oversees much of the programming, including teaching for NYSID’s Master of Professional Studies in Sustainable Interior Environments (MPSS) program. Professional students from all over the world study at NYSID—some in person, some remotely. The program is one of the leading educational programs in the industry when it comes to integrating design with sustainability.

We recently talked to Bergman—who’s also on the executive board of the NYC 2030 District and the Designers Lighting Forum of New York—about how he’s seen the industry change over the years. He shared some of his experience and insight about today’s demands and how NYSID is preparing the next generation of design professionals to provide more sustainable interiors.

What does sustainable interior design mean to you?

Let’s start by asking what it is we’re trying to sustain in sustainable design. I dislike when people say they’re trying to save the planet, because it’s a cliche, and really the planet will do just fine—maybe better—without us. What we’re really trying to do is to sustain a planet that we can survive on, or better yet, where we can flourish.

Then when we ask what sustainable interior design means, we can approach this even more selfishly, which, by the way, I don’t think is a problem because that’s often what appeals to people. It’s not just the universal or local ecosystem we’re concerned about; it’s also the number of indoor mini ecosystems we spend most of our lives in. Essentially what we’re doing is adding concerns about human health to planetary health.

How is the practice of sustainable interior design changing?

We’ve known for a long time that buildings are responsible for 40% of global energy consumption through their lifetimes. What wasn’t widely acknowledged until more recently is that the interiors of our buildings are responsible for a much larger chunk of that than was thought. That has to do with the relatively short life of many interiors versus the longer life of buildings—especially in areas like the hospitality industry, where an interior might get replaced every seven or 10 years. That’s a lot of material churn, a lot of embodied energy, and a lot of landfills.

We’ve gotten a reasonable start on improving energy efficiency of the operations of buildings, which means we now have to shift our attention to the materials, specifically interior materials, and bring those into scrutiny. We need to start thinking in terms of their embodied energy and in terms of the circular economy.

How do you address that high turnover rate in interior design?

That statistic came around a couple of years ago, and we’ve taken it very much to heart. I don’t think any of us really had numbers in front of us that showed the dramatic difference in the longevity of a building of 50 to 100 years versus an interior. You can’t point to very many interiors, except perhaps in landmark ones, that last that long. Look how frequently restaurants change over and how big the dumpsters are going out.

How can that be addressed in current training?

Student work from NYSID’s MPSS program. Rendering courtesy of NYSID

One of the big tools we’re starting to use is something called design for deconstruction; we’re designing for disassembly. The materials are put in knowing they may not stay there that long. How do we take that into account? How do we make that not a total loss? At the same time, by designing with that near future in mind, it may save the client money.

What are NYSID students looking for?

The students who are in the program already have professional degrees in interior design or architecture. Some of them have been working for a while. They’re looking now to focus on sustainability—to add that to their toolkit and be able to apply it in their work. Hopefully the degree opens doors for them.

I tell students as they’re finishing the program that maybe they’ll go into a firm that is already practicing a fair amount of sustainable design and they’ll become an asset to the team. Or maybe they’ll go into a firm that isn’t really there yet, and they can push the firm along.

What is the MPSS program providing the industry?

This work comes from NYSID students Grace Spiezia and Samantha Berlanga. Rendering courtesy of NYSID

It’s literally filling a void. I haven’t heard of any other degree programs where the sole focus is on sustainable interior environments. You’ll find a course or two in sustainability in most any architecture and interiors program, but this is designed for people who already have those earlier degrees. We do nothing but sustainable interiors.

And it’s in-person and remote?

Yes. That’s a big draw for the program. A student can participate from the classrooms here or from anywhere else in the world with a laptop simultaneously. They get exactly the same education. And that was not a Covid development; we’ve always offered this.

What are architects and designers demanding in projects these days?

Almost any design team now is looking to incorporate sustainability at some level into their projects, whether it’s because a client wants them to or because the team brings it into the picture. It’s almost a given that there’ll be some level of sustainability in any project. I think that’s very significant because it’s not only the designers promoting it; it’s the market demanding it.

With more focus on sustainability, are you seeing more sustainability-focused roles?

There are some firms that do have exactly that title—director of sustainability. It’s a specialty. For those of us in the earlier generations of this, we had to figure things out on our own. The people who are now becoming directors of sustainability or starting with a degree like this are still going to have to figure out a lot on their own, but they’ve got a big head start. There’s a lot more knowledge out there and a lot more technical expertise than there was, say, 30 years ago. That leads itself to be more easily embedded in an office.

How has that conversation changed since you were in school?

When I got out of college and grad school it was after the oil embargo. Energy prices got low and cheap again, and people suddenly didn’t care so much about sustainability, though we didn’t call it sustainability then. The firms I was working in didn’t do much about it.

In the early ’90s I started seeing really cool materials that were sustainable in varying degrees, things like wheat board that I would enjoy putting in my projects. I saw this possibility of merging good design with sustainable design that really hadn’t been that possible before. For instance, I had a secondary related company where I designed and produced light fixtures. I did that because I found these cool materials we could make fixtures out of and because compact fluorescent lighting hadn’t become any better at that point. This was long before LEDs. I saw a way to do energy-efficient lighting that looked cool. That was my stepping stone in the early mid-’90s into sustainability.

What do today’s sustainable projects look like?

Biophilic design and natural light are among the sustainable interior design elements seen in students’ work. Rendering courtesy of NYSID

The field of sustainable interior design is maturing. This is something I’ve been saying about the program and the field for a couple of years now. Not long ago a sustainable design might have meant energy efficiency or avoiding paints with VOCs. It’s now much more developed, especially in material health and how materials affect us. It’s so critical because we spend 90% of our lives indoors. All those chemicals are around us. It’s become even more critical in energy-efficient buildings because, ironically, they’re more airtight, so the cocktail of toxic chemicals in interior furnishings and materials stays inside unless the space gets mechanically ventilated. It’s great that our buildings are more insulated. It’s wonderful for energy consumption. But it’s created a secondary problem in the process.

The other thing is that now we’re getting this flood of information and data. It’s hard to understand what it means and how to apply it. When, as a designer, you’re presented with an LCA or EPD, you have to know how to interpret it, how to make comparative judgments, and how to arrive at your own decisions. That’s a big thing I emphasize in the materials course at NYSID. I tell students they have to understand what all the information is because then they’re going to make their own decisions.

How is sustainable design changing commercial projects?

If we’re talking about offices, mostly that brings in a whole additional aspect of employee productivity and efficiency. We’ve found things like daylighting and whether you have local control over the air temperature around your workstation, whether you have a good view of nature, those things can have a tremendous impact on sick days, productivity, and even employee happiness. That becomes a big value proposition to clients.

If a company has poor productivity or high turnover and they have to retrain new people, that’s a huge expense. Investing in sustainable design has a great ROI.

What do NYSID MPSS students learn?

We tackle sustainable design throughout all our BFA and MFA programs, but we really drill down into it in the MPSS because it’s the focus of our courses. We look at both the impacts and tools at our disposal in materials and lighting, mechanical systems, hard and soft goods, and the design, construction, and operation process.

Once we’ve gone through and investigated all of these we ask what’s next. We’re looking at not just what sustainable design is and how we do it, but what we need to be doing moving forward. It’s our hope that the graduates from the MPSS will become the next leaders in the field. We’re seeing that now.

Back to that idea of sustainable design allowing us to flourish—I like talking about that because people sometimes talk about sustainable design as this compromise or things we have to give up. It’s exactly the opposite in most situations. When we practice sustainable design, when we live in sustainably designed places, we live better and we can flourish as people.

When we live in sustainably designed places, we live better and we can flourish as people.

What’s changing now is that we have to simultaneously understand both the big picture and the small picture. It’s not just about specifying low-VOC paints and non-PVC flooring. We now need to be experts in so much more.

We used to practice sustainable design by a gut feeling or, in aviation lingo, flying by the seat of our pants. Now we have modern tools—something more akin to a digital cockpit, but we don’t have autopilot yet. This may be where AI comes in and helps, but who knows at this point?

How are students changing?

I’ve been teaching sustainable design at NYSID and other places for a while. One of the things I’ve noticed is the students coming into these programs—whether it’s a sustainability program or just a design program—know a lot more about sustainability now than they did 10 or 20 years ago.

I teach not just in the MPSS program but sometimes I teach first-year students, and I don’t really have to explain anymore what the greenhouse effect is. They know what fossil fuels are. They see what is happening; they’ve seen it in the news, and maybe they’ve experienced it. So we can start at a higher level.

The post Exploring the Evolution of Sustainable Interior Design at NYSID appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• Unexpected, colorful furniture choices for inspiring interior design
• The latest from Patricia Urquiola, Gabriel Tan, and more

These colorful sustainable furniture solutions make for bright interiors you won’t soon forget.

We rounded up some of our favorite releases of the year, from customizable rugs to bright couches you can quite literally recharge on.

Pheaby by Patricia Urquiola for Moroso

Artisanal meets industrial in this Patricia Urquiola–designed upholstered chair for Moroso.

Called Pheaby, its legs have feet more reminiscent of a carpenter’s trestle than a typical chair, supporting a softly rounded seat with no sharp edges.

Pheaby comes with a solid wooden base; choose a chair structure in ash or oak. The seat is lacquered in the five colors chosen for the Rows collection—Honey, Cinnamon, Forest Green, Taupe, and Coal Grey. The seat and back are upholstered with polyurethane foam in varied densities. Pheaby is flame retardant-free.

Pheaby is part of the Rows collection by Patricia Urquiola. Its geometrical and minimalist design expresses a refined artistic concept.

The Luva Modular Sofa by Gabriel Tan for Herman Miller

Photo courtesy of Herman Miller

This organic, modular design from Portugal-based Singaporean designer Gabriel Tan is all about options.

Portuguese for “glove,” Luva was designed at Tan’s studio in Porto. Its shape was inspired by the soft grip and padded support of boxing gloves and the delicate rolled tops of Japanese futons or Shikibuton.

Luva can expand into an open back so you can lounge or it can be situated as a more supportive seat.

Luva is available in armchair, chaise, sofa, and sectional configurations. A hidden bar near the bottom of the seat allows you to combine or separate pieces easily.

Electric by Bendtsen Design Associates for Keilhauer

Electric by Bendtsen Design Associates for Keilhauer in Red. Photo courtesy of Keilhauer

The red-hot Electric sofa is equally at home in the modern workplace and private offices.

Electric meets the demand for both beautiful furniture and, quite literally, a place to recharge, as it comes with an optional integrated power source.

Designer Niels Bendtsen said its form is meant to create a classic silhouette that’s also quite dynamic.

The piece is Keilhauer’s first freestanding sofa to offer a built-in power source option. You’ll find one standard outlet and two USB ports at the center of the sofa, discreetly installed underneath the seat.

Artes Round Rug from Sit-In with ECONYL

This rug is part of the Artes collection from Sit-In.

Winding, pop-influenced lines bring life to the fabric, as the Artes rugs collection expresses all the character of a modern home with people on the move.

The Artes collection is hypoallergenic, with innovative Virex treatment that reduces the viral load up to 99.9%.

ECONYL itself is made entirely from waste, is 100% recyclable, and offers up to a 90% reduction in global warming potential compared to standard nylon. Designers are increasingly turning to it to create incredible new designs—from carpet to chairs to handbags.

Prima Vista by Bentley Mills

Prima Vista by Bentley offers customizable wool area rugs. Photo courtesy of Bentley Mills

Bentley Mills’ new area rug program takes interior design options to the next level with customizable wool area rugs.

Prima Vista is the debut pattern collection of hand-tufted, hand-loomed, and hand-knotted rugs made by Bentley’s expert artisans using ancient rug-making techniques. The collection features a library of 50 patterns—choose one, change one to suit your vision, or start from scratch.

The rugs are made with 100% New Zealand wool and fully customizable by size, shape, and edge detail.

All Bentley carpet products are Cradle to Cradle–certified and produced in a carbon neutral, LEED Gold–certified manufacturing facility.

The post Sustainable Furniture Ideas for Bright Interior Design appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• JZA’s Jeff Zbikowski shares the benefits of walkable design in communities across the US.
• JZA specializes in the dense, walkable projects that aim to ease the affordability crunch in cities across the US.
• Other benefits of walkable design include reduced CO2 emissions from fewer car trips and health benefits from residents walking and biking more frequently.

Across the US two separate but related trends are coming to define the current housing market. On one hand an affordability crisis is putting homeownership out of reach for many. On the other both home buyers and renters are gravitating toward more walkable communities, where daily amenities and necessities can be reached without a car.

For architects like JZA Architecture principal and founder Jeff Zbikowski, specializing in designing affordable and walkable communities, the two go hand-in-hand. That’s because the rise in popularity of denser housing developments that forego onsite parking is helping to alleviate a housing shortage that has driven up costs from coast to coast.

“Eliminating cars typically frees up ground floor space for retail and eliminates basement parking, which reduces the cost of construction and allows developers to provide more dense housing,” Zbikowski says. “That increases supply and further drives down the costs of those units, creating a more affordable community.”

A number of factors have made walkable design increasingly popular, especially among young professionals in major cities. The rise of remote work and post-pandemic desire for socialization has had a large impact.

“People really value living in a community where they don’t need to drive to work. They’re biking, taking transit, and walking around,” Zbikowski says. “If you’re not spending 45 minutes a day each way going to the office, you have so much more time to go out and live in your community.”

Strong walkability design in a multifamily project like Beta Apartments may include reducing or eliminating parking, freeing up space for pedestrians. Rendering courtesy of JZA Architecture

But as Millennials age and struggle to purchase a home as previous generations have, the affordability that walkable design offers is critically important.

Few areas have experienced the nationwide affordability crunch like cities such as Los Angeles. But over the last year conditions have begun to change—dramatically—with a new California state law. “This year it turned into the wild west with these affordable, walkable projects,” Zbikowski says. “Developers are building crazy density right now.”

In January 2023 California eliminated parking minimums within a half-mile of transit stops. That law complements a 2014 LA transit oriented development (TOD) ordinance that allows greater density the closer a development is to transit. This, along with increased affordability bonuses and reductions in red tape, has led to a boom in walkable, affordable development.

“Last year we had 600 units under contract. This year that’s up to 4,000 affordable housing units under contract,” Zbikowski says, despite rising interest rates. “The vision for the future is to continue on this trajectory, bringing identity to each project, being respectful of local contexts, and promoting walkability.”

Other benefits of walkable design include reduced CO2 emissions from fewer car trips and health benefits from residents walking and biking more frequently, like from these Cherokee Avenue Apartments. Rendering courtesy of JZA Architecture

JZA’s Cherokee Ave. Apartments in Hollywood is one such development that benefited from these zoning changes. One of Zbikowski’s first projects when he founded the firm back in 2017, Cherokee Ave. is emblematic of the many roadblocks that slowed dense, walkable projects under the former development regime.

Initially planned as a 12-unit apartment building, Zbikowski was then tasked with redesigning the project into 18 units before opposition to the increased density sent the unit count back down to 12, and then from an apartment building to a small-lot subdivision. With the changes in state law, Zbikowski and the developer were able to bypass the traditional review process and were approved for a 53-unit, five-story affordable development.

“We were able to convince city planners that we’re on a busy street and should be able to build higher density, taller, and still create something that’s tasteful,” Zbikowski says. “Now you have affordable housing, density, and it’s in an area where you can walk to retail and grocery stores.”

Though taller and denser than its immediate neighbors, city officials agreed the Spanish Revival design with a modern twist fit well into the neighborhood context. Construction is expected to start in late 2023.

And while affordability is top of mind for many, it’s hardly the only advantage of designing walkable communities. Additional benefits range from fostering social interactions among neighbors and enhancing a sense of place within communities to the climate benefits of fewer cars on the roads and the health benefits of walking and biking.

That’s one of the key approaches Zbikowski takes to designing walkable projects. “We typically like to oversize our bicycle parking while reducing car parking,” he says, and adding space for larger, rentable cargo bikes gives residents another way to get to the grocery store without a car.

JZA Architecture says dense, walkable projects like the Beta Apartments aim to ease the affordability crunch in cities across the US. Rendering courtesy of JZA Architecture

At the under-construction Beta Apartments near the University of Southern California campus, JZA planned a large space for bicycles given the area’s walkability and the transportation needs of students—who tend to get around without a car. “Designing walkable projects is very site-specific,” Zbikowski says. “You can’t just place a 100-unit building with no parking anywhere.”

Though LA has long been infamous for its car-centric design and urban sprawl, the city may look quite different a decade from now as these types of dense, walkable, and affordable projects continue to proliferate. “Creating these smaller community-centric developments will be a catalyst to create more walkability in these neighborhoods,” Zbikowski says. “The demand is certainly there.”

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• Designed by Corgan, Wells Fargo’s new campus in Las Colinas, Texas produces more energy on site than it consumes. It’s the first net-positive project for both the client and the architecture firm.
• The project started with an initial goal of net zero, but when the client moved the target, 0the design team had to scrutinize every system to reach net positive.
• Corgan’s commercial sector leader Matt McDonald shares why financial institutions are making big sustainable building moves.

Workspaces designed around wellness and sustainability are important for attracting top talent, says Matt McDonald, the commercial sector leader at Corgan. “If you’re a college graduate, you’re going to be looking for an organization that aligns with your priorities. You want to put your career and energy into a place that is giving back to the environment, giving back to a community, or giving back in some capacity.”

He’s noticed some financial institutions, like JPMorgan Chase’s net-zero HQ in Manhattan and Goldman Sachs’ Dallas campus, have been making a push toward sustainability in their building efforts. “Corporations these days are looking beyond being competitive and really doing the right thing. They realize they’re the entities that have the ability to influence how the real estate market happens and how commercial real estate gets developed.”

Corgan recently designed an incredibly sustainable campus for Wells Fargo in Irving, Texas that will go beyond net zero to generate more energy onsite than it consumes when it’s complete. Currently under construction, the mixed-use development will consist of two 10-story office buildings connected to a parking garage via a skybridge. The 850,000-square-foot project is targeting LEED Platinum, with special attention paid to site planning and building orientation, facade design that mitigates heat gain, solar panels, regionally sourced materials, lighting interventions, and interstitial biophilic elements throughout the space.

It’s Corgan and Wells Fargo’s first net-positive project. We recently sat down with McDonald to learn more about how they plan to achieve this inspiring project and its challenges.

What is net positive?

Designed by Corgan, Wells Fargo’s new campus in Las Colinas, Texas produces more energy onsite than it consumes. It’s the first net-positive project for both the client and the architecture firm. Rendering courtesy of Corgan

The idea of creating a net zero development or building is giving back an equal amount of the power of your consuming, so therefore your impact on the utility grid is zero.

It’s net positive when you’re generating more energy on the site than you’re using. You’re able to give that power back to the utility grid, store it, or do something else with it.

This is a very aspirational goal, and we’re thrilled on many levels to actually achieve this.

How do you achieve net positive?

As the crown of the building, the PVs are softly up-lit at night to create the illusion of a delicate floating plane—a signature mark of the project and its vision. Rendering courtesy of Corgan

You can create power onsite in a couple of ways. You’ve got hydroelectric if you’ve got a river or a dam close by. You’ve got wind potential if you’ve got the availability for that. But based on where we are and where the site is, it made the most sense to focus on solar power.

Access to sunlight and views is also important. One of the sustainability goals is to make sure you’re getting natural light deep into the building floor plates. These are really large floor plates—40,000 square feet each—but we’ve designed them to be long and narrow so you don’t have dark spots in the middle of the building.

One of the counterpoints to that is when you have too much natural light, you have some heat gain and glare that comes along with that. This is probably one of the larger installations on a corporate campus of an electrochromic glazing system on the exterior. What that does is when the sun is bearing down the glass darkens a bit so you are minimizing some of that heat gain, while still taking advantage of the views and the light without using window shades to block the view.

How has this plan evolved?

The initial goal was to be net zero. The client came back to us late in the design process and said, “Hey, we want to really bump the goal here to be net positive.” We really had to knuckle down and scrutinize every system, every plug load, every computer, taking it down to the actual number of employees who were going to be utilizing power onsite.

Wells Fargo has its own sustainability team. They’re challenging us on our energy models, our solar heat gain, and our energy usage. They’re really pushing the envelope, no pun intended, to really make sure we’re maximizing the availability of technology and really trying to stretch sustainable development.

How do you balance aesthetics and performance?

Rendering courtesy of Corgan

This is an initiative Wells Fargo is very proud of. The idea of seeing the solar panels was something they were not afraid of. The solar canopy makes that top level of the architecture usable by shading it, while also being able to showcase and make visible what we’re doing on the sustainability front.

There was a balance between the calculation of the required area and then structurally how far you can cantilever those things out at an economic rate. We did have to be very particular about how the underside of those canopies look because it will be visible from the street. It will have to be very carefully installed, and we’ll be monitoring that very carefully, but the idea of creating that as a thoughtful and very visible approach to sustainability was something that became a design element in itself.

Where does biophilia fit in?

We wanted a large parking structure because we are going to have 5,000 to 6,000 cars we have to manage on a daily basis. Putting that on a separate piece of property gave us the perfect opportunity to utilize that upper level for photovoltaic panels to harness all the energy.

That also reduced surface parking and minimized paved outdoor spaces. We could maximize the green both from an accessibility and walkability perspective but equally for views. You offset the heat island effect by utilizing more landscaping and create outdoor amenity space that is so desired.

With this site being on the waterfront, you have this tremendous outdoor amenity that will never be blocked. Not only does it help you from a sustainability perspective because you won’t have anything that’s casting shade on your building, but you’ve got these unadulterated views of this really thoughtful development that’s here in Las Colinas.

How do you see sustainable design strategy evolving?

I think there’s a lot of tried and true sustainable practices that are being tested for their maximum potential. If you think about using the sun to generate power, using the earth to do geothermal wells for heating and cooling, these are not new practices. These are timeless practices that have been done based on what the good earth has given us. We’re just learning new and innovative ways to utilize them and maximize their efficiency.

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The post Corgan Wells Fargo Project is a Net-Positive Energy Development appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• The Park House project in Aveiro, Portugal needed to be constructed on a single city lot and reuse a facade built in a traditional style.
• While close to the neighboring buildings, the resulting multilevel modern structure affords its occupants with privacy, outdoor living, and views of the city.
• Architect Paulo Martins specified sustainable cross-laminated timber to reduce waste and streamline construction.

A veteran of residential and commercial projects of varying sizes, architect Paolo Martins, the principal of Paulo Martins Arquitectura & Design in Aveiro, Portugal, approaches each project to meet the demands of its environmental context and client expectations, incorporating new design solutions as needed.

Completed in 2022, the Casa do Parque (Park House) project required careful planning and innovative construction methods to meet a strict timeline and the constraints of a congested neighborhood in Aveiro—a prosperous seaside town known as “the Venice of Portugal.” In addition, the existing building had “historical and emotional” significance in the area, so its facade needed to be preserved even as the firm gutted the rest of the structure.

The client came to Martins because they had seen examples of the firm’s past work and trusted his vision for the project. “It was conceived to meet various demands—those of the client, the climate, and the terrain,” he says. “It gave us some difficulties. We couldn’t demolish the building completely. In construction there are many problems with that.”

How They Did It

Integrating sustainable design and construction practices required planning and coordination, but the firm was able to select sustainable materials, manage waste, and implement energy-efficient systems effectively. From the poured concrete floor up, all structural elements were constructed using cross-laminated timber (CLT). It was a sustainable choice “that would allow us to build cleanly and quickly without the need for a large construction site,” Martins says.

CLT is an engineered wood product that includes multiple layers of solid-sawn lumber, each layer glued perpendicular to the others to enhance structural rigidity. It’s a popular choice for housing construction in the Scandinavian countries for its strength and sustainability, since the wood is typically grown in managed forests.

Imported from Austria, the CLT arrived at the site pre-cut to reduce the quantity of materials needing storage, construction waste, and environmental impact while streamlining assembly. “You design all of the house from the beginning,” Martins says. “The company produces the CLT and sends it to you in the perfect dimensions; you just have to put it together like Legos.

“With normal construction you have tons of waste,” he adds. “It’s a much cleaner way of making houses. It uses less space because as the wood arrives at the building you mount it immediately. You don’t have to store the materials. You can reduce the number of trucks going out and coming in [and their] carbon emissions.” Using CLT also sped the time to completion and helped prevent avert traffic bottlenecks on the busy street outside.

The design of the single-family residence is split into multiple levels, affording occupants what Martins calls “a gradient of privacy” from bottom to top. The ground floor features large panes of glass and doors that open onto a concrete terrace, while balconies on the upper floors overlook the public park just beyond the site’s back wall.

Living spaces are open and bright, often spanning the entire width of the structure. Photo by Ivo Tavares

Inside whitewashed wood lends the house a bright, spacious feel in spite of its narrow city lot. An open floor plan creates effortless flow between spaces. Sustainable design elements include energy-efficient appliances and ecofriendly materials. The house has solar panels to heat water, and automated systems monitor and optimize energy usage.

The Park House was the first in which Martins specified CLT, but he says it won’t be the last; several of his current projects are using the material. “It’s not a new way of building, but in Portugal it’s very innovative,” he says. “The Park House was an experiment—not the first, but maybe one of the first—experiments with CLT in Portugal.”

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Project Details

Project: Park House
Location: Aveiro, Portugal
Completion: 2022
Size: 5,575 square feet
Architect: Paulo Martins Arquitectura & Design
Engineer: R5e Consulting Engineers
Lighting Design: Paulo Martins Arquitectura & Design
Builder: Cimave
Acoustic Design: R5e Consulting Engineers
Fluids Engineer: R5e Consulting Engineers
Thermal Engineer: R5e Consulting Engineers

Section plan. Image courtesy of Paulo Martins Arquitectura & Design

Rooftop solar panels heat water, while skylights bring natural light to the upper floors. Photo by Ivo Tavares

The post CLT Brings the Aveiro Park House in Portugal to Life appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• The Acton Passive House was designed by ZeroEnergy Design (ZED), a green architecture firm based in Boston, for a client looking for respite from city life.
• The vision was unwavering: The client wanted a modest primary residence with two bedrooms and two bathrooms that felt like a retreat in nature.
• The project meets rigorous standards for energy efficiency and includes solar panels that produce more energy than the home needs throughout the year.

Set in a clearing of evergreens is a sleek, modest home. A low profile, strong horizontal lines, and modern style put the Acton Passive House in stark contrast to its natural surroundings. As a passive house it meets rigorous standards for energy efficiency. It’s incredibly well insulated, has high-performance windows, and includes solar panels that produce more energy than the home needs.

The project was designed by Boston-based architecture firm ZeroEnergy Design (ZED) for a client who wanted respite from hectic city life. “It’s a simple object placed within the landscape,” says Stephanie Horowitz, lead architect and managing director of ZED.

The firm’s design philosophy embodies the idea that buildings must have a positive impact on the built environment. The client wanted minimal energy consumption, efficient appliances and lighting, water-saving strategies, and more. From the first conversation about Acton Passive House Horowitz knew it would be a project well aligned with her firm’s mission.

The Design

Image courtesy of ZeroEnergy Design

The design process was methodical; the client was an engineer with an unwavering vision. “The direction was clear. It didn’t evolve too much throughout the design process, which is somewhat atypical,” Horowitz says.

A modest primary residence with two bedrooms and two bathrooms was the goal. It had to be simple and modern, it had to operate efficiently, and it needed to feel like a true retreat into nature. The result is a beautiful house with a simple shed roof. Its rectangular footprint includes an open living/kitchen/dining space, office, and a mechanical/laundry room. The interior is functional but modern, with polished concrete floors, minimalist fixtures, and plentiful natural light.

While the design itself was straightforward, the client provided more input in some more technical areas. The interior glass doors used in the project are office doors with much better acoustical properties than the kind typically used in homes. The client also took particular care in researching the driveway, landing on a gravel grid system that avoids asphalt and allows for easy upkeep.

The Build

The exterior walls are mostly made of colored fiber cement by Cement Board Manufacturers. The roof is by Drexel Metals and features wood accents along with eaves. At night sconces on either side of the front door light up for wayfinding. Photo by Nat Rea

ZED moved through the design process smoothly, but when it came time for construction they faced a couple of challenges. The project started during the pandemic, for one, so delays were a concern.

“We knew lead times on materials we were ordering would be a problem, so the client secured a shipping container we put onsite to store materials ordered well in advance of when we’d need them,” Horowitz says. “We were able to design the container into a permanent shed that mimics the design of the house. It was a necessity turned into a fun feature.”

The team also struggled to get power to the site during the build. The utility company had a huge backlog as well as a labor shortage. Instead of waiting, the contractor brought in a generator and battery-powered tools to get everything moving.

Green Features

The light fixture in the kitchen was custom-designed by the client, along with the stainless steel kitchen countertop. It and the shelving and baseboards are sleek, durable, and easy to clean. Photo by Nat Rea

The project is designed and certified to the Passive House standard and is also Source Zero-certified—meaning the home can produce all the energy it needs. Air leakage is common in traditional buildings—hot and cool air go out the window literally. But this house has essentially no draft, no leakage. Horowitz says it’s an extremely comfortable and healthy living environment because of that. The insulation allows the house to passively heat itself and retain the temperature at night.

There are plenty of sustainable tools and tactics designed into the house, too. On the energy side you’ll find a rooftop solar array, a right-sized heat pump, and a backup battery that allows the house to operate without any carbon emissions. The walls and roof are filled with dense packed cellulose, containing very low embodied carbon, then wrapped with wood fiberboard insulation, eliminating the need for petroleum-based, high embodied carbon foam insulation. Not only is wood fiberboard 100% compostable or recyclable at the end of its life, but it also has negative embodied carbon, meaning the trees it was derived from sequestered more carbon than the product consumed from its manufacturing.

“What we were able to do on this project was rely on a wood structure and minimize the concrete, which typically has the highest carbon impact. Through the process we wanted to make sure we weren’t just looking at operational carbon but also considering the embodied carbon—the carbon that goes into the construction,” Horowitz says.

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Project Details

Project: The Acton Passive House
Location: Acton, MA
Completion: September 2021
Size: 1,473 square feet
Architect: ZeroEnergy Design
Mechanical Design: ZeroEnergy Design
Contractor: Adams + Beasley Associates

Photo by Nat Rea

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