What’s your client really think about integrated design… ?
Most everybody agrees that the key to great green buildings is integrated design - where different professional disciplines work together in an integrated way to create a building, rather than cutting a project up into sections and having different companies separately work on those sections.
But when I hear it discussed, people are often doing one of two things: patting themselves on the back for doing such a great, fantastic job on a particular project, or explaining the necessity of the process to newcomers.
Rarely do you hear it criticized or analyzed. But the proof is in the pudding and if you’re really wondering how well the process is working, why not ask your client?
That’s just what Tracy Bowen (right) of The Alice Ferguson Foundation in Maryland is. She’s developing a living building project in Accokeek, (across from Mt. Vernon), and the lady tells it like it is. She chose to go after a living building, rather than LEED because “I felt like LEED was a really good baseline but it was going to create a ceiling… (that) wasn’t high enough.”
Using her experience with integrative design as a baseline, Bowen says the process is in its infancy. In fact, the process was shocking to her. “It’s boxy. It’s very linear.” - What do you think?
Boiling it down- Bowen said the charette is great because it gets so many minds thinking about the same problems that solutions can actually be achieved - but once it’s done, she said the whole process of design becomes ”less organic” and is dealt with by professional subsection again.
Read more to hear her advice!
Her advice? Get out of your comfort zone! Think big! Ask kids! Look at a project differently! Just today in the New York Times, Janet Rae-Dupree wrote that developing new habits and stepping outside our comfort zones can actually make us (humans) more creative. Go figure.
Bowen said, “Don’t think you’re doing great things by including the contractor 
and engineer in design… It’s not enough. You’ve got to think more creatively than that.”
Let’s be clear though, Bowen’s argument is not with her team but with the industry in general.
She said she’s had to push her team, but they have responded by working together and coming up with innovative designs. She is VERY happy with them. Her team is made up of nationally renowned members of the green movement including Sandy Wiggins of Consilience LLC in Philadelphia and immediate past chair of the U.S. Green Building Council, as owner’s representative, and Muscoe Martin, principal at M2 Architecture, and former chairman of the AIA Committee on the Environment and a director of the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council. (Bowen had over 40 responses to her original RFP on the project).
So that’s one client’s perspective, but what about yours? Where do you think integrative design is? Would you agree with Bowen, or do you think she’s being unfair? I want to hear from you if you’ve worked on a project, or with one. Are there any great examples out there in the whole U.S. of A? Let me know what you think!
Tags: Green projects, Integrative design, LEED, Living Building, Maryland, Projects
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