GENERATE 2024: Learning Labs

Thursday, November 14th, 3 – 4pm

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These days, considering sustainable design is a given in most architectural projects. There are huge benefits to user well-being, community buy-in, and owner costs when sustainable design is prioritized. This presentation will challenge you to expand your definition of “green” design to encompass a deeper level of sustainable considerations, including manufacturing, materials lifecycles, repairability, and timeless design. From the perspective of multidisciplinary lighting, power, and technology designers, you’ll learn how to engage your consultants in conversations to level up the positive environmental and social impacts of your work. Through extensive research, case studies, and hands on experience, the presenters will share inspiring stories of how you can push the boundaries of sustainable system design beyond the basics.

Speakers: Andi Walter & Brian Johnson, PE, LEED Green Associate

When a medical office building in Wheat Ridge, CO, faced a mid-process pivot while designing, a fully unitized building enclosure system was adopted, combining precast exteriors with steel frames, insulation, and pre-installed glazing. These units arrive on-site ready to enclose the building, speeding up schedules and reducing on-site resources. This project highlights a high-performing, energy-efficient solution that transformed the design process. Hear from the project team about the challenges they faced and how Infinite Facade™ met their needs.

Speaker: Dan Stenzel

Wood, a material as complex in its origin as its use, requires significant processing and evaluation before it can be used to liven an interior space. Starting with the base material – the tree itself – and ending with a discussion of the various applications, Designing with Wood will review the primary steps involved in designing and specifying wood ceiling and wall systems.

Speaker: Meg Whitaker

Creating environments that successfully address building IEQ while optimizing building performance is a complex challenge. The impacts that human evolutionary history and social / cultural factors have on equitably achieving health and wellness in the built environment are often overlooked or superficially addressed. Examples include the resulting evolutionary mismatches we end up with in our buildings, the impacts that our cultural norms underlying clothing and food preferences have on thermal comfort and air quality satisfaction, and the use of stigmas associated with varying groups of people to dismiss (directly or indirectly) their indoor comfort and performance needs and concerns. Marcel will briefly provide illustrative examples as well as discuss how quantifying productivity / health impacts and incorporating ethnographic methods can help better account for these overlooked human factors. 

Speaker: Marcel Harmon, PhD, PE, WELL AP, LEED AP O+M