Peak oil is here and industrialized civilization is facing its final challenge, the challenge that will decide if we as a species continue. Peak oil is not when the oil is gone, this is when the energy being put into drilling, pumping, transporting, refining, and finally selling the oil is greater than the energy of the oil being removed. This will happen to all resources eventually. This is happening now for oil.

But, some good news – architecture has a long history to draw on – almost all of it without industrialized oil based technology. Buildings account for around 70% of all energy use – creating building materials, transporting materials, construction, heating, power, lighting, demolition.

First what will be increasingly affected by decreasing oil supplies? Let’s start at the top, the roof. Bitumen, Hot Mop, Modified Bitumen, PVC, TPO, EPDM, tarpaper, asphalt shingles – all based on oil products. Expect these to increase in cost.

Next is flashing. Many modern flashings are EPDM. Architects and contractors know that flashings are what keep the envelope able to shed water. They are used everywhere. Metal flashings are mostly used on roofs. EPDM most often used around windows, sills and other transitions between materials. In addition to flashings are backer rods, also made of plastics (oil) these are used in expansion joints in façade materials.

The envelope of a building beyond the flashing materials discussed, there are many oil intensive materials used. Tyvek and other building wrap, including of course tarpaper are needed to make a moisture barrier are oil intensive. Vinyl based siding, EFIS – Elastomeric Finished Insulating System – is polystyrene with a thin layer of cement and latex based finish, are oil intensive.

These things are the stock and trade of modern building across all spectrums of typologies. So how can we build without these materials? Look at history, what’s been used before oil. Additionally reuse the oil intensive materials we’ve already manufactured.

First is masonry. Bricks have been in use for thousands of years, and before that mud bricks. Bricks made in the modern way use powerful gas fired kilns to cure the clay. Transportation can be a big oil use in bricks, so finding a local manufacture is a good way to reduce oil dependence. Reused bricks are another resource to look for.

Stone is another pre-oil resource, but quarrying and transporting it is very oil intensive now, but reusing stone into new construction is not. The pyramids of Giza, originally covered in white marble, but over the millennia after the Egyptian dynasties, the marble cladding was scavenged for use in Cairo. This is the fate of all un-used monuments.

Wood has been our other medium of choice for thousands of years. Our timber and lumber industry is geared to produce trees for the housing market. The large trees are gone or protected and the production forests are harvested as soon as possible to make the standard lumber we are familiar with. But standard lumber is not the only way to build with wood, it’s just what is most available and economical for commercial purposes. Every climate that has trees the culture has found a way to use this resource. From Pueblo dwellings that reuse the same logs (hence they stick out), to huts and yurts, log cabins, or long houses. In these modern times, reusing the older lumber locally is another lower oil impact resource. Another is urban logging that can recover wood from trees felled in storms or during development. Many times these mulched, but alternatively for construction or millwork. (Especially veneers and laminates)

Going back up to the roof, the most important surface that keeps the rest of the envelope working efficiently; there are certain factors that must be re-examined. I started listing all the oil-based products used in roofing. Prior to the miracle of bitumen-based roofing the options were slate, tile, thatch, metal and wood.  These components work, but they all require attention to detail.  The bitumen roofing systems have much simpler details, and can be rolled out (literally) very quickly. Building large flat roofs is a modern edifice. Pitching a roof is the easiest way to get the water off the materials. Only with the seamless and impenetrable surface of bitumen products can you have the 1/8” per foot slope, and have pools of water on a roof. All other materials are assembled in such a way to shed water. However, our modern technology has developed the living roof. By using the impenetrable EPDM or TPO as a substrate and then using modular trays to hold soil and succulent vegetation these two work together to make a living breathing surface. The soil and plants protect the EPDM from UV rays, and the plants can absorb the water that sits on top of the roof material. The green roof reflects heat, cutting heating and cooling costs, and absorbs some water that would enter the storm system.

The biggest hurtle architecture will face is localism. We as an industry are accustomed to getting our materials and equipment from across the country, even the world. As oil becomes more expensive, transporting construction materials will force us to look at local resources. So get to know your local industries, your local machinists and manufacturers. Where do these local manufactures get their resources, their equipment? We need to reexamine our details, specifications, and notes.

Links:

Green America’s National Green Pages, building materials

Peak Oil, more than you want to know

Plan B, Earth Policy Institute

Here is a tv series I really enjoy about sustainable design. Enjoy

photo credit: pedrosimoes7

Blogging from Birch Bay, WA this week, it is a lesson in views. The Birch Bay is part of the northern Puget Sound. This area is not far from Victoria, the San Juan’s, and it is quite beautiful. The condo I am staying is situated so that the beach side units are angled like a saw tooth to give the maximum view. 

Key to this the lay of the land and thinking forward in time to how the view will change over time. First is how the sun will affect the view throughout the day, shadows, glare and direct sunlight. The unit I am in faces northwest. In the morning, the sun comes in through one window in the loft, but because of the trees in the area, 80’ tall Douglas Firs, that light is filtered and does not shine directly on to a wall, but scatters off the pitched ceiling and exposed beams. At noon the unit is in shade except for the deck, which quickly fades as the sun continues it’s path. The afternoon and evening the unit is full of sun glare from the bay. 

Further, in time one has to consider the foliage and landscaping. How will it grow, how will the trees at their mature height, maybe 5 or 10 years later, will impact the views.  Will the owners be changing the landscaping often, or leaving it to mature. Knowing what the client’s plans are will be helpful. 

Finally, how is the surrounding area likely to evolve over time? This property sits across from the beach, so other than the tides, it’s not likely to change. However if this was up on a hill, what kind of zoning is further down the hill? Is it residential, or commercial, is there a possibility the view can be blocked by a Target? Spend time looking at the area, the community, and what kinds of issues are present in the local papers or website. Birch Bay’s future is to stay the same as much as possible, not everywhere else is as lucky.

The veiw from the deck of the unit we are staying in at Jacobs Landing

It has finally come to an end. The design process and this series of posts. You’ve done your design work, you’ve made all the revisions and it’s time to finish up the project. With most design projects there will be a few loose ends to tie up.

Is that brochure really ready to go to print? Are the colors separated correctly? Do you have the files setup correctly for the printer? Is the website complete? Are all the links working correctly and have you tested in all web browsers…especially Internet Explorer?

Once the project is out the door, don’t lost track of your customer. Check in periodically. Make sure the project went well. If it’s a website, check the site. Make sure it’s working correctly. Ask if they have any questions. If you do a good job the first time and stay in contact, repeat business is the best. Ideally, you want all your clients to think of you for all their design needs.

I took a small break to work on remodeling my office. I’m back and ready to continue the series on my design process.  If you’re interested, check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. This next phase is where you take the suggestions that your client has made to the original concept and “fix” it.

This phase is pretty straightforward.  I do however see two ways to approach this part of the project.  The first, and easiest, is to just make all the changes the client wants.  This typically leads to happy clients. That’s never a bad thing.  You can probably then guess that the other approach is to pick and choose what changes to make.  Many reasons can dictate this decision.  You may have spent too much time and just can’t afford it.  The fixes may be a hindrance to the design. Or, they may just be plain bad suggestions.  Using judgment here is the most important thing. Not every piece needs to go in your portfolio.  You may just have to suck it up and make the corrections. I’ve even changed a piece for the client, but kept my original design or concept as my showcase piece. I go back to the fact that happy clients are the best ones.  They lead to more work and more money.  Which, where you are comfortable admitting it or not, is the main goal of owning your design company. You don’t do the work for free.

“Your opinion counts, unless I don’t agree with it.” Yes, I’ve heard this one before. Talk about choosing your words wisely! This is a craft that I work on constantly. At every meeting, phone conversation or e-mail, I try to give the best opinion I can. Here are some things that go through my mind when I formulate my response.

Be Honest

Don’t lie. Sounds simple enough, but extending the truth doesn’t help anyone. If I’m asked what window style I like, or whether gold trim is back in style, I’ll give you my opinion. It’s just my take on it. Take it as another bit of information to process on your journey to making your decision.

Take Your Time

If I’m being asked a complicated question, like where’s the best place to put a bathroom, I may need to think about it. What factors go into location? Where’s the nearest plumbing wall? Does the spot work with the adjacent uses? Will the flow (sorry for the pun) work for the rest of the house/office/restaurant?

I Don’t Know

I wish I had all the answers, but I don’t. If I’m asked how much something will cost, or how long will it take to build, I may not have the answer. If the question doesn’t fall into one of my specialties, I’ll have to decline.

Know Someone Who Does

BUT!!  I make it a habit, if not a sport, to know where to go for answers. I may not know a lot about one specific thing, but I know a little about lots of things. And, I know a lot of people who are specialists in what they do.

Be Concise

I’m good at babbling. I work very hard trying to be concise. Every great design started with an even better problem.  I strive to focus on solving that problem as efficiently as possible.  Words can get in the way if you’re not careful.

Here are a few points I think about before chiming in.

Photo Credit: piterart

How many square feet is your project? As simple question you say, it’s AxB=C and other geometry equations we all learned in the 4^th grade. But what if your project is going to be leased out? Or owned as condos, but have common spaces? Do elevators count? Commercial spaces can have complex considerations for dividing up the area’s between the common areas, areas belonging to the building owner, and area’s leased to tenants. Thankfully there is BOMA – Building Owner & Manager Association – to set a standard to follow. I’m going to go over the types of building areas and some tips on how to measure them using AutoCAD. In general Area counts can go on a separate layer they you can freeze and turn off when not needed. Use an obnoxious color you can’t miss, so you can remember what they are for, and in AutoCAD set it so it is a “Non Printing Layer” in the layers options.

Gross Square footage:

This is your overall building size following the exterior perimeter of the building following the outer finish. This is used by building codes and authorities to establish your buildings’ square footage. If you are going to rent the building in whole, you could use this measurement, especially if the lease allows modifications to the building exterior, and the renter is responsible for all exterior maintenance. If however, the landlord is covering the maintenance and exterior of the building you would look at shell and core square footage.

Shell & Core:

If the lessee is only responsible for the area inside the building, the gross square footage is measured differently. The lessee area is measured up to the exterior wall, and halfway through windows that make up more than 50% of a room’s wall area. If there is a common area, elevator or other shaft the lease line would end at the exterior of the walls surrounding those areas. If there is another tenant the demising wall each share the wall equally. A way of figuring this out in CAD is to use a polyline and the “in-between” snaps. Start at a corner and follow the lease area as above. You can use the “in-between” snaps to get between the inside and outside of window openings, wall intersections and other areas.  Always make sure to use the “close” command to make it a full polyline object. Using properties one can get an exact area take off.  To get the landlord’s area you must be a little tricky. Start the poly line on the outside corner and follow the perimeter, but when you get back to the start point stop short so it doesn’t automatically close, go to the inside edge of the lease polyline. Follow it back along that line to the start point. Close the polyline as normal then zoom in on the part where you stopped short, edit the polyline so you can move that point back to the “start” area. The polyline object is a big “C” shape essentially. This polyline will now give you the total area of the building’s shell.

Net Square footage:

Net square footage is the area of the space minus the walls, columns, chases and shafts that go through the space. Think of it as the area of the carpet.  This has couple of ways of being measured in CAD too. Start on an inside corner and measure around as above, but at doorways go halfway between the walls. To deduct columns and other objects in the middle of the space, drop the polyline down to the center of the column (Good old “midpoint” snap and “O-tracking”) follow around the object back to where the line dropped down, place a point there and continue back up to where you dropped down, and continue around the space. Another useful tool is “Bpoly” command in AutoCAD that will drop a polyline into an enclosed space – like the “Hatch” command can cover an area. However – there is some planning involved. To get columns and other objects included correctly draw a line that connects them to a wall. Lines between doors must made to enclose the room, and other objects like text, hatches, leaders must be turned off (freezing is probably better though). When all of your objects are linked you can drop the “Bpoly” command, then erase your guides. This may take some trial and error to get it right, but it can be very handy to do take-offs very quickly.

Definitely pick up the BOMA standards guide and review it, it is a great resource and you can help your commercial clients make sure they are renting and leasing the correct amounts of space.

When it comes to craftsmanship, how much is too much? Is there a limit to the precision one can expect on their project? Seeing a paint stroke or maybe a gap in wood work, when does it become a do-over? When do you accept it as a standard tolerance in construction?

Perfection

Perfection is unobtainable. There, I said it. No matter how hard you try to make that shelf level, it’s not EXACTLY level. There are tolerances built into the standards of what is acceptable construction.  Typically, larger projects have these tolerances spelled out in their specifications.  If there isn’t a spec, it might be worth having a conversation before the project begins. What’s level? Is a half inch out of level okay in a ten foot span? Not sure, but it’s worth talking about it.

What if you want your builder to go that extra step and pay extra close attention to detail? Maybe for a fireplace mantel, will it cost more? Maybe, or maybe not, having the conversation before construction begins, and hopefully during bidding will make sure it’s covered in the pricing.

Cost

Why would perfection cost more? Having a small tolerance for gaps, lets say one sixteenth of an inch between wood paneling may mean purchasing higher quality floor boards. Or, not seeing any form of blemishes on a new wall might mean switching to a plaster skim coat rather than standard mudded joints. Which one do you think costs more?

Time

Paying closer attention to tolerances usually means spending more time working to get it right. If you have a very tight building schedule, you may not have room to allow for the extra time needed.

Availability

Using custom cabinetry as an example, maybe you want a special piece of custom glass installed in your new kitchen cabinets. Maybe you’re looking for hand made glass to match something else already built in the house. If it’s no longer available, hopefully it can be reproduced to match the existing. Sometimes the reproduction just doesn’t look right.

Complete your design.  Specifying any special tolerances or unique materials before a project is bid will help keep your project on track!

Photo Credit: white0akart

I grew up in the Washington DC area, a metro area blessed with a well funded transit system. As a kid I could take a bus or subway into DC. I grew up a few blocks from the deepest subway station in the US, I used all the time. When I skipped school I didn’t hang out at the shopping mall, I headed for the Mall in DC with all of the free Smithsonian museums. Later I went to school in Chicago, a fantastic transit town. The L, an extensive commuter train system, and pretty good bus service. I went for 7 years without a car, and I took that system for granted.

Now I live in Puyallup Washington, a small town east of Tacoma Washington, part of Pierce county. For the last few weeks my car has been laid up needing some repairs. To get around I have been using Pierce Transit and King county transit. It is a different experience.

Those of us who would like to see oil consumption reduced, our carbon foot prints diminished, and everyone using as much public transit as possible forget that America has really poor public transit outside of the major metropolises. I am going give kudos to Pierce transit for that they have very modern hybrid compressed natural gas – electric hybrid buses, a free light rail in downtown Tacoma, and have worked hard to have tight schedules. However – as we move to more transit and less individual cars – we really have to rethink our towns. “Downtown” Puyallup could be a set for the Andy Griffith Show, (though St. Charles Illinois is the unofficial official Mayberry), it is walkable and has a good connection to the train line that serves Tacoma and Seattle. But that core quickly becomes sprawl a half-mile in every direction outside of that main street location.There are few sidewalks, and it then quickly becomes farms and industrial parks.

In order to transition from our gasoline car based life style we need to improve the quality and quantity of our transit resources. Not just in the big cities and towns, but focus on the small towns and suburbs, and really find ways to overlay light rail, more bus service, car and van pools in these areas. If the quality and availability isn’t there, everyone’s first choice will still be to own a car. Even an electric car contributes CO2, most of our electricity comes from coal. Our real solution is more mass transit, get the cars off the road. We have to choose to do it, no politician, lobby or group is going to mandate it, but they can fight for more transit dollars to expand service and improve quality.

In the winter of 1997 it was terribly cold. I was working as a temp just out of college in the Greek Town part of Chicago, west of I-90/94. It must have been -20 air temp and a windchill of -30 at least. The rails froze above ground and we had to get off the train and get the Clark St. Bus to get back to Rodger’s Park. In that 90 minute wait I swore I would save every penny I could to by any car – just so I wouldn’t have to stand in weather like this again. I didn’t care if I would still be stuck driving in the slush for 2 hours, I would be warm and dry. If the bus had come sooner it would have been just another Chicago winter day, instead the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) just sold another car.

I realize there may be some confusion about what an architect…is. I thought this post would help shed some light. At least, I’ll go over some generalities about us!

Rich

HA! I’m laughing as I type this out. But, I’ll get people wondering why I drive a pickup truck. “Where’s my BMW?” So far from the truth. I have no idea where this stereotype started. I don’t think I know any architect that’s rich. Maybe rich on life! But, not sure who’s wealthy.

Clothes

Okay, we all don’t wear black turtle necks. I hate turtle necks. Always feel like I’m being choked. And, we all don’t look like lumberjacks. At least, I try not to in summertime… But, I am guilty of wearing a tie with a nicely worn pair of jeans. I think we’re the few that can get away with it.  And, yes I do sport the glasses most of the time.

Big Words

I hate big words. I read with a pocket dictionary by my side. I never understood why someone would want to confuse another with big words. My goal is to try my best to explain myself. Big words get in the way.

Snobby

I am happy to say that I have only a few friends that are archi-snobs. All the rest are down-to-Earth kinda people. Why we have that stereotype is beyond me. I like being approachable.

Designers

Believe it or not, we’re all not designers. In fact, there’s only a few that I really admire. I consider myself to be more practical. Maybe that’s a flaw, I don’t know. But, every great design solution starts with a great problem to solve. Many architects are great problem solvers, managers, and technical experts.

Boring

I would have to say we all aren’t boring. We may be quiet, but that’s just the gears turning. Though time usually doesn’t permit, we enjoy doing other things than architecture. Though I am fond of ‘This Old House.”

Old

I had no idea how many people associated architects with having to be old. Do I have to wait until retirement to get some street cred?? I do know some wise older architects, but then again, I know some younger ones, too.

Babble

Okay, I am SO part of this group. It might be a stereotype, but it’s true!! The one trait I try so hard to fix is babbling. I can go on and on if someone lets me. I once was in a focus group with a dozen other architects. What was our common trait? Babbling!

Writing Instrument

This too is true. We all carry some kind of writing instrument. It was pounded into me to always carry a pen. And more times than not, it’s always been helpful. Same is true about pocket knives.

So, any other architect stereotypes I’m missing? (Keep it clean.)

photo credit: radiant guy