Given the fact that Americans spend 90% or more of their time in and around buildings, careful design of these environments is increasingly important. As the Living Building at Georgia Tech nears completion of the design development phase, careful attention is being paid to ensure that the project provides a “nourishing, highly productive, and healthy built environment.”
Today’s businesses are rethinking the way they operate their facilities, using IoT and analytics to transform operations from reactive to predictive-based. Forward-thinking facility managers are, in turn, able to optimize comfort, energy spend, and maintenance at the same time via intelligent analytics gleaned from connected building systems.
A pair of recent studies show that building owners want to invest in healthier buildings but face obstacles in finding sufficient health expertise among design and construction professionals. This finding reveals an excellent opportunity for design and construction professionals seeking to distinguish themselves in a crowded “green” marketplace.
Keeping external noise from penetrating into what should be the quiet, peaceful sanctuary of the guest room might seem an impossible task.
As states and local jurisdictions move toward more efficient building codes, the manufacturers of construction materials have been developing and improving products to meet new standards.
Individual components or a preconfigured system? R-values. Fire safety. Sustainability. These and other issues are topics of debate, and often misinformation, among specifiers. This article parses out facts from commonly held beliefs.
When faced with a multitude of products to see within nine football fields of exhibit space at AHR Expo in January in Las Vegas, how does an attendee find the best sustainable solutions?
Beginning Nov. 1, the fourth version of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED certification program will be its only active certification.
The 531 exhibitors on display at the 2016 Greenbuld International Conference & Expo 2016 Oct. 5-7 offered opportunities to see a wide variety of products and services available to professionals within the sustainable building industry.
The philosophy of “form follows function” guided architecture for much of the 20th century. Now, even in a time when building performance is being scrutinized as never before, architects and developers are paying a great deal of attention to buildings’ form. Building science often is cloaked in a great deal of art.
A recent study investigated case studies from High Performing Buildings magazine and ASHRAE Technology Awards from 2010 to 2015. It evaluated the impact of factors such as location, climate, HVAC and building type.
In the developed world, mechanical systems such as perimeter heating, compensate for shortcomings in envelope performance to provide a thermally comfortable environment. However, with an increased interest in maximizing energy efficiency and façade transparency, as well as providing healthy spaces for occupants, this model is due for reconsideration.
The open-plan office spaces now ubiquitous across many industries are a source of annoyance for some people, especially those who prefer freedom from distractions, and for those who want to control their interactions with others. Generally speaking, research suggests that people in open-plan offices are less happy with their workspaces overall, and may be more likely to call in sick.
Kurgo Dog Products repurposed its existing warehouse, shipping containers, wood logged in the 1800s, and even an old canoe to create its new dog-friendly HQ.
As the 2016-17 season for the National Football League opens, sustainability is increasingly becoming an important player in the on-field experience for the teams and their fans. Implementing and promoting sustainable features in stadiums is also a way for team and stadium ownership to save money and generate goodwill in an environment where stadium-building costs are skyrocketing and often, local taxpayers have to foot a least part of the bill.
Buildings are increasingly no longer just containers for life. Through technology, buildings are gaining lives of their own. With the amount of data that can be accessed about everything from occupancy, to airflow rates, to energy use, it is almost as if buildings are nearing sentience. And, as in science-fiction accounts of inanimate things achieving sentience, it spreads rapidly.
The Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA) SkyLab, the world’s first high-rise rotatable laboratory for the tropics, and the Academic Tower, a dedicated experiential learning facility and living lab for the built environment sector, opened in recent ceremonies at the BCA Academy in Singapore.
The Renwick Gallery was built in 1859, and in the 1960s Jacqueline Kennedy led a successful campaign to restore the building’s use as a museum. Fast forward to the 21st century and the building’s comprehensive two-year renovation program significantly reconfigured building mechanical space to address improved access for maintenance, while reducing energy and water use.
Wood is increasingly being touted as a viable building material for tall towers. In fact, a “race” of sorts is under way as the title of “World’s Tallest Wooden Skyscraper” changes hands among new buildings around the world.
A primary driver of—and deterrent to—green building is “green.” Money. As in most other ventures, costs and benefits are key factors in the decision to build sustainable, high-performance buildings.
The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s renovation is just one of the many major renovations going on at the Smithsonian Institution.
Two major manufacturers gathered diverse groups of leaders in the HVAC&R and building industry during June for lively discussions on the future of energy efficiency and smart-building technologies with government officials, policymakers, researchers and advocacy groups.
Modern architecture began in the early 20th century and was in direct opposition to the ornately carved and heavily embellished classical buildings of the past. Modern architecture embraced and celebrated new building technologies, materials and construction methods such as precast concrete, aluminum, plastics, and structural steel frames.
When the Byron G. Rogers Federal Building project was announced in 2009, this 1965 building had never undergone a major upgrade of its systems or finishes. Over the years there were maintenance projects for MEP systems and large tenant improvement; however, the "bones" of the building had never been touched.
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