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Last night I had the immense pleasure of catching Jaime Lerner at the RIBA Jarvis Hall in Portland Place, London. I had originally come across Lerner on TED, Chris Anderson*’s brainchild. If you aren’t already aware of TED, go check out the many and varied lectures and performances.

Lerner is an architect and urban planner by trade and was also the mayor of Curitiba, in Brazil. Curitiba is the capital of Paraná. Lerner was mayor three times (1971–75, 1979–84 and 1989–92). In 1994, Lerner was elected governor of Paraná, and was reelected in 1998 until 2002.

Watch the video below, from TED which gives a very potted version (16 minutes) of what we were treated to last night. Lerner also talked at University of Westminster on Monday and will again tonight at BFI.

Jaime Lerner: Sing a song of sustainable cities

Some background (from Wikipedia) which was not given last night. Sunand Prasad and Nicky Gavron seemed to expect everyone in the audience to know exactly who Lerner was, but a lot of this I wasn’t aware of:

As Mayor, Lerner employed unorthodox solutions to Curitiba’s geographic challenges. Like many cities, Curitiba is bordered by floodplain. While wealthier cities in the United States such as New Orleans and Sacramento, have chosen to build expensive, and expensive-to-maintain levee systems to build on floodplain. In contrast, Curitiba purchased the floodplain and made parks. The city now ranks among the world leaders in per-capita park area. Curitiba had the problem of its status as a third-world city, unable to afford the tractors and petroleum to mow these parks. The innovative response was “municipal sheep” who keep the parks’ vegetation under control and whose wool funds children’s programs.

When Lerner became mayor, Curitiba had some barrios impossible to service by municipal waste removal. The “streets” were too narrow. Rather than abandon these people, or raze these slums, Lerner began a program that traded bags of groceries and transit passes for bags of trash. The slums got much cleaner…

Perhaps the crown jewel of Curitiba’s achievements is its Bus Rapid Transit system (called “Speedybus”). Originally, the city was given Federal money to build a subway (Curitiba is not a small town), but Lerner discovered that “heavy rail” like a subway costs ten times the amount for “light rail” (trolleys), which, in turn, costs ten times a bus system, even with dedicated bus ways. The “light rail” savings usually touted to sway municipal decision makers occur because even trolleys can have relatively fewer drivers than a 40 – 60 passenger bus. Lerner got Volvo to make 270 Swedish people accordion buses (300 Brazilians, says Lerner), so that the problem of a lower passenger number to driver ratio was no longer an issue. The City built attractive transit stops with the look and feel of train stations — and all the handicapped access equipment – inducing private firms to purchase and operate the buses. A hierarchy of buses of six sizes feed one other. The city controls the routes and fares, while the private companies hire drivers and maintain equipment.

Natural land-use patterns within the city of Curitiba support public transit systems. Buildings along the dedicated bus ways are up to six stories tall, gradually giving way, within a few blocks, to single story homes. This mix of densities ensures sufficient user population within walking distance of bus stops.

Lerner has a very broad, dare I say, holistic view of sustainable cities. Green buildings, recycling and transport are all individually important, but on their own, are not enough. That said, his talk focused very much on the transit system and also on the way he has since applied the principles to other cities. The fascinating thing about the transit sytem in Curitiba is that it isn’t subsidised at all – it pays for itself.

I found this quote via Green500 originally although the link seems broken now. The 75% of CO2 emissions was a number quoted by Lerner last night too:

Cities are an important battleground in the fight against the impacts of climate change. Worldwide they cover less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, but account for some 75% of CO2 emissions. London alone emits up to 44 million tonnes of CO2 a year.

One of the most striking points for me was the fact that he had the agency, as mayor, to introduce the changes he made, which must be a unique position of an architect/urban planner. He couldn’t wear both hats at the same time, but the experience in both fields rubbed off on each other.

A quote, which I think he uses in the TED video above,  is that to be creative, cut one zero from the budget. To be sustainable, cut two. With a vision or proposed solution, it is possible to create sustainable cities without necessarily spending a fortune.

Lerner has an infectious optimism when it comes to the future of cities. As a lover of cities myself, I was won over by his enthusiasm. The city is a much more effective scale for sustainability than individual buildings. As he said:

Cities are not the problem. Cities are the solution.

*It was only when I looked it up on Wikipedia I realised there were 2 Chris Anderson’s – I had assumed Wired/Long Tail Chris and TED Chris were the same person – they’re not! Ooops!

admin Events cities, Jaime Lerner, RIBA

These are my links for March 24th through March 29th:

• Lack of integration threatens UK’s sustainable buildings – Nothing new here – what are we going to do about it?: "The report argues that the "large number of interfaces" between the parties to the construction process, coupled with "high transaction costs and risk of duplication and re-work", serves a body blow against efforts to the rapid growth of sustainable buildings. It recommends that at the start of a project, "an integrated project delivery team with in-depth knowledge of the construction process" must be put in place."
• Design for Homes – Continuing Professional Development (CPD) – Masses of CPD pdf's – including articles from Pooran Desai and loads on sustainable communities.
• Transsolar Climate Engineering: Moderating The Design Process- 3/1/2009 – Building Design & Construction – "Among the participants were two German engineers, Matthias Schuler and Thomas Auer, who, according to Schuler, came away from the project with two overriding ideas. The first was that the most energy-efficient buildings they studied had been designed from the start with the target of reducing energy consumption—holistically, not as an afterthought.
  The second grand idea was that the “conversation” between architects and engineers was halting, at best. “Engineers think in numbers, architects think in pictures,” Schuler recalls. “There was a need for a moderator”—an entity that would iterate ideas back and forth between members of the Building Team to enable them to integrate the physical elements of any building project to produce the optimal solution."
• Architects are creating toxic ‘killing machines’ – Building Design – "Architects are creating “killing machines” by not considering the toxicity of the materials used in buildings, America’s leading sustainability expert William McDonough said this week."
• The Four Sins of LEEDwashing: LEED Green Buildings That Perhaps Aren’t Really Green : TreeHugger – 1) The Sin of Not Following Through
  2) The Sin of Valuing Gizmos Over Appropriate Design
  3) The Sin of Laughably Inappropriate Use
  4) The Sin of Wretched Excess.
• BRE-PassivHaus-Primer.pdf (application/pdf Object) – Passivhaus is flavour of the month at the minute. Nice 8 page pdf explaining the principles and the differences between passive and passiv.

admin News architects, Bill_McDonough, building, buildings, collaboration, construction_industry, CPD, design, engineers, green, holistic, IAQ, integration, LEED, passivhaus, reference, RIBA, Sustainability, Sustainable, system:filetype:pdf, system:media:document, toxic

What I’ve been reading about:

• Survey warns of low profit margins – Building Design – A third of architectural practices made so little profit in the boom times that they could go bust with the onslaught of the credit crunch, an RIBA survey has revealed.
  This year’s RIBA Business Benchmarking Survey, released to BD this week, shows that just 67% of firms met the industry safe standard of profits equalling 15% of total turnover.
• EH’s Heritage Counts report calls for ‘recycling’ of older buildings to cut CO2 emissions – Building Design – English Heritage argues that a significant proportion of energy savings will come from adapting historic buildings. Properties built before 1919 contribute just 5% of carbon emissions, despite making up one fifth of all housing stock, it estimates.
• Dubai to tighten up its act on green regulations – Building – In practice, standards vary wildly across Dubai. Build on any land controlled by Dubai World, the investment company that controls large parts of Dubai and owns developers including Nakheel, and all buildings must achieve 29 compulsory LEED credits, many of which cover energy and water use. Smith says that these add up to a building a notch short of a LEED silver rating. Tecom, which controls Dubai Internet City, has another set of requirements. And all areas are subject to controls by Dubai Municipality, which requires compliance with Decree 66.
• Dutch to adopt BREEAM – Building – The Dutch Green Building Council is to adopt BREEAM rather than LEED as its building assessment tool for the Netherlands.

mel starrs News architect, BREEAM, buildings, Building_Regs, Dubai, existing, historic, LEED, netherlands, profitability, RIBA, statistics

These are my links for August 10th through August 15th:

• Blogs – RIBApedia – RIBApedia opens it's doors. Under the blogs page: "Blogs (or webblogs) are diaries written and disseminated on the web." Tempted to log-in and start tweaking stuff but the rules of engagement aren't clear? Do you have to be an architect to participate?
• Wright’s Palmer House Put on the Market | News | Architectural Record – Cheap at half the price:"The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Palmer House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, acclaimed by historians as one of the architect’s best residential projects, has been put up for sale by the family of the original owners. The asking price is $1.5 million."
• Making Energy-Saving Buildings – Forbes.com – …the vision behind a new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) "net-zero energy" commercial building initiative launched Tuesday. The program's goal, set forth in a section of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, is to get net-zero energy commercial buildings of all types up and running in the U.S. by 2025. At the moment, however, this is not economically feasible. "You could build a building that's net-zero energy-efficient today, but the utility savings are not sufficient to pay back that investment over the life cycle of the building," says David Rodgers, the DOE's deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency.
• AIA Deconstructs Green-Building Standards| News | Architectural Record – While officially neutral on green-building rating systems, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently parsed three of them in an effort to evaluate how well they align with the association’s sustainability goals. In its report, which was released in May, it carefully avoided picking a favorite of the three systems: t he U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED NC 2.2, the Green Building Initiative’s Green Globes, and The International Initiative for a Sustainable Environment’s SBTool 07.
• Castlemore’s Waverley Gate project awarded EPC – Building Services Journal – The fun that can be had with statistics. For example:"Castlemore’s Waverley Gate development in Edinburgh has been awarded an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), placing it in the top 11% of sustainable commercial buildings in the UK.". No mention of where the 11% came from. Which list of sustainable commercial buildings are they talking about? The building gets a C by the way.

mel starrs News architects, DOE, EPC, FLW, Green_Globes, house, LEED, RIBA, social_media, statistics, US, wiki, zero_carbon

These are my links for July 22nd through July 24th:

• Target Finder : ENERGY STAR – Create building type specific targets based on US zipcode. Excellent resource, but be mindful the target is energy, not carbon.
• New Buildings Institute – Getting to Fifty – There are no technical barriers, and few financial ones, to restrict the energy efficiency of most commercial construction from being at least 50 percent better than current code requirements. However, there is limited practical guidance for design teams
• Advanced Buildings Home – Don't try this at home. Specification ensures energy reduction without modelling (US oriented – credits can be gained under LEED). In UK, of course, we now have SBEM. Modelling effectively mandatory…
• Zero carbon houses cost up to £47,000 more to build – Building – As I flagged up yesterday, with a rather less sensationalist headline (slightly disappointed with Building on that one – not helpful in today's gloom and doom)
• Ska rating: – Skansen Open Source fit-out assessment (BREEAM competitor). Still looks to be under development…
• Is LEED still relevant? » Blog Archive » YoChicago – The pro's and con's of LEED are debated in the comments to this blog post.
• RIBA CABE BSF – RIBA unsurprised at low quality of BSF design. RIBA "called on the government to let it road test the RIBA's alternative 'Smart PFI' model, which it claimed would 'would ensure design intelligence is deployed right from the start of any BSF programme'."

mel starrs News 2030, benchmark, BREEAM, BSF, buildings, CABE, carbon, criticism, design, Energy, fit-out, LEED, PFI, reference, RIBA, SKA, US, zero

CASPAR (city centre apartments for single people at affordable rents), a development of 42 apartments on North St in Leeds (just opposite Hansa’s Gujarati curry house) is now to be demolished. The Yorkshire Post have the latest developments here. Guardian report here and Treehugger comment here.

It’s a cautionary tale. What lessons are to be learnt?

The site was initially open to competition and won by Levitt Bernstein on behalf of the client, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Contractor was Kajima UK Engineering Ltd, structural engineers were Alan Conisbee and Associates and Services Engineers were Max Fordham and Partners. According to RIBA contract value was £2,432,916 and was reportedly built without subsidy. JRF expected a return of 6.2%, compared to their average portfolio of 2.9%. Each apartment cost in the region of £60k to build, high for apartments, especially for one occupant dwellings.

The project won much acclaim after it’s completion in 2000 and won awards with both RIBA and the Civic Trust. The SDC (Sustainable Development Commission) have the development rated as a 5 star sustainable case study. The energy efficiency of the development appears to be very good. Where it was obviously fallen down on the sustainable front is that instead of the 60 year expected lifespan, the development has lasted less than 7 years.

The concept of the design was prefab offsite construction carried out by Volumetric in Bedfordshire, part of Potton Group, whose expertise include other modular buildings such as Travelodges. The reason for the initial evacuation, after an investigation by Arup, was “potentially catastrophic structural problems“. The flats have a 2% chance of collapsing in exceptionally high winds. The problem appears to lie with how the units were put together once they arrived on site (hints of what might have gone wrong can be found in the comments here, including putting the ground floor flats on the fifth floor – oops!). Treehugger describe the false economy of deciding to go semi-volumetric (some flat pack, some pods – such as bathrooms and kitchens):

The project team is generally of the view that the decision to go semi-volumetric proved a false economy, as the challenge of tight, steeply sloping site, large overhanging roof and semi-circular plan combined to exert unmanageable pressure on the assembly of flat packs to keep up with the pace of pod delivery.

Further details of the project can be found here and here. CABE still have the details to CASPAR I in Birmingham (a different construction method was used), but there is now no sign of the CASPAR II case study.

The new scheme to take the place of the demolished building will be developed by local developer LifeHomes and local architect 2B. The old scheme was in general well received and despite the problems will probably be fondly remembered. LifeHomes are in talks with planners to see how the spirit of CASPAR can be retained.

The lessons that can be taken away from this are all in the delivery of the project once it hit site. There appears to have been both logistical and communication problems. Anecdotal evidence points to too many pods and flatpacks arriving on site too quickly, pressuring the operatives on site to construct even faster and mistakes being made about which pods went where. I would love to know if a full time clerk of works was employed on this job – could better site inspection have prevented these mistakes?

All this ended up being a mistake too costly to rectify without demolition. Whilst these mistakes are ultimately linked to MMC (modern methods of construction), the proximate reason lies in the delivery, rather than the method of construction. This, I believe, is a problem that can be identified and resolved in the future now it has happened once, rather than to damn MMC to the scrap heap. I’m all for learning from the lessons of others. It seems there is the potential to learn much more from mistakes than successes.

mel starrs Uncategorized Alan Conisbee, Birmingham, Civic Trust, energy efficiency, GBP, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Kajima UK Engineering Ltd, Leeds, Max Fordham, Potton Group, RIBA, Sustainability, Sustainable Development Commission

In what could herald the most radical shake-up for PFI in the past 15 years, RIBA have launched a position paper detailing its PFI procurement model – the Client Concept Design Model – and a number of firm recommendations following the Smart PFI principles:

The Client Concept Design Model seeks to address the problems the RIBA and its partners have identified in the PFI procurement and design process:

• Excessive cost and time necessary to bid for PFI
• Inadequate resourcing of the public sector client at the early stages of procurement – The Strategic and Outline Business Case stages – to allow adequate option appraisal – including site and location appraisal- and strategic brief development
• Untested and/or poorly tested project briefs prematurely put to the PFI market
• A lack of experience within the public sector clients, many of which were first time commissioners of buildings
• Insufficient direct contact between the client and the design team during the bid stages to allow good briefmaking and a robust design to emerge with adequate stakeholder consultation

The position paper can be found here (pdf, 6 pages). They admit in the paper that PFI does not currently result in ‘good design in public buildings’ and wastes money, time and effort. The paper calls for more money for the public client earlier in the process for option appraisal, and also calls for central and local gevernment to increase their design departments.

Could the council design team, many of whom were sold off to the private sector in the last decade, be set for a comeback?

mel starrs Uncategorized PFI, Procurement, project brief, RIBA

The general flavour of reaction seems to be to welcome the CSH, but with many calls to address existing housing stock.

Friends of the Earth agree that the Code should be mandatory – I think it will be by April 2008.

Places for People believe it should apply to all housing.  I would agree in principle, but more research needs to be done to see what exactly is feasible.  Trying to enforce unachievable targets is a worse sin than doing nothing at all in my book.

Green Building Press have a good summary of reactions, including CPA (Construction Products Association) who expressed disappointment that it does not provide greater recognition for manufacturers and suppliers who have developed sustainable building materials (something I commented on here).  It will be taken on board if EcoPoints are used, but a new document is due, BRE Green Guide 2006. The Guide is due for electronic publication in January 2007 and replaces the Green Guide to Specification. Good quotation from Micheal Ankers of CPA:

“Improving the existing housing stock by 1% each year would save more energy than making the entire housing new build, zero carbon.”

Treehugger, a US green blog has also picked up on the story.

RIBA’s president Jack Pringle has welcomed the news, and again reiterates the need to look at the existing housing stock:

“Action targeted at new homes can only be the start, and still more needs to be done. The Government’s manifesto proposed a Code for Sustainable Buildings and I hope to see further steps by the Government to tackle the energy performance of existing building stock. The RIBA has put its weight behind challenging carbon reduction targets which we believe are vital. Today has seen a fine step forward by the Government but further action is needed if we are to design our way out of climate change.”

admin Regulation Construction Products Association, CSH, embodied energy, EPBD, existing housing, Friends of the Earth, Jack Pringle, Micheal Ankers, Part L, RIBA, sustainable building materials

If, like me, you have been tearing your hair out, trying to get your head around Part L since long before April this year, this book may help alleviate some of those stresses. Available from RIBA and NBS, the Guide costs £25. The RIBA blurb is below:

Guide to Part L is a thoroughly researched, in-depth guidance for architects, construction professionals and building control officers about the complex new regulations governing the conservation of fuel and power in buildings. More than a general overview, this guide cuts through the jungle of new provisions and requirements to provide a logical, straightforward road map to compliance.

Guide to Part L comprises detailed step-by-step guidance to every section of the new four-part document, highlighting essential points and anomalies, and is illustrated by invaluable process flowcharts. It is backed up by extensive appendices that give further information about almost every issue affecting compliance, including: target emission rates, SAP, SBEM, U-values, overheating, air permeability, efficient boilers and controls, insulation, ventilation, efficient air conditioning, efficient light fittings, commissioning, log books and how to assess ‘simple payback’.

Written by the Building Performance Group at the BRE and published by NBS (the official publishers of the Approved Documents), this guide has been written specifically from the building professional’s perspective and will make the difficult Part L more easily assimilated and applied.

“Thankfully there is now a guide that unpicks these unfamiliar and rather tortuous new requirements … I can see it becoming a genuinely important reference work for architects, construction professionals and even building control officers as they grapple with the new approach”. Bill Gething, of Feilden Clegg Bradley LLP, chair of the RIBA Sustainable Futures Committee and the RIBA President’s Advisor on Sustainability.

Note the language used in the review: complex, jungle, anomalies, difficult. Putting it mildly, I think. In the Foreword to the book, Bill Gething describes the regulations as ‘unfamiliar and rather tortuous’.

The highlight of the book for me are the flow charts and the appendices, but there are plenty of other nuggets of information. Many of these I had surmised already, but it is gratifying to see the experts agree with me:

• It is likely that U-values will have to exceed the standards of Part L 2002 in order to meet the TER
• It will probably be necessary to design for an air permeability better than 10m³/h.m²@50Pa, particularly in buildings with mechanical ventilation and air conditioning
• 2 calculations may be required for BER (Building Emission Rate) – a design stage which identifies the critical features of the design that will affect the energy performance of the building, and the second one when the building is completed. This version includes the actual results of air permeability, ductwork leakage and fan performance tests.
• Solar gain needs to be controlled in areas which do not include comfort cooling (does this seem wrong to anyone else? Surely this encourages the use of comfort cooling, because by the time the solar overheating problem is identified, the building fabric and form are fairly fixed, and the only option for compliance is to add comfort cooling. The moral of the story being that architects will need to realise what an impact their design has on compliance at a very early stage)
• Ductwork on systems served by fans with a design flow rate greater than 1m³/s should be tested for leakage

The one disappointment with the document is a lack of clarification on energy efficient building services and LZC technologies. Instead the book refers the reader to the ‘Non-Domestic Heating, Cooling and Ventilation Compliance Guide’ (pdf) and ‘Low or Zero Carbon Energy Sources: Strategic Guide‘ (pdf), neither of which are particularly light reading. I was hoping the Guide to Part L would fill the gaps between these two documents and the SBEM tools (including Hevacomp).

The intention of Part L 2006 was to conserve fuel and power in the built environment. The manifestation appears to be a complex, misunderstood calculation which whilst academically sound, does not lend itself well to how the industry operates today. The luxury of a period of time where the architect and engineer could fine tune the design using an iterative process before going out to tender is harping back to the ‘good old days’ when we used to have time to draw every pipe out in double line. Perhaps this change in regulations will see a return to longer design lead times? It will certainly require a greater deal of collaboration between the architect and the engineer at an earlier stage of design. It is not in the architect’s interest to design the fabric and form without consideration to Part L compliance and the building services, as this will undoubtably drive the capital cost of the building up, as technologies are added to the building in an effort to make it comply.

admin Book Review Bill Gething, collaboration, Feilden Clegg Bradley, LZC, Part L, RIBA, SAP, SBEM, u-values