ABN 13 - News

High-Density and Mixed Uses

For Further Information
contact :

Mixed-Use and High Density
Fanis Grammenos
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
Fax: 613 748 2402
Or:
Nils Larsson
CANMET Energy Technology Centre
Natural Resources Canada
Fax: 613 232 7018
email: larsson@greenbuilding.ca

Sustainable Housing Study
Sheldon Levitt
Quadrangle Architects
Fax: 416 598 3123

Adaptable Housing Study
Neil Munro
Young + Wright Architects
Fax: 416 960 0172

A recent study of Ottawa federal office buildings shows that some 43% of the total building-related CO2 emissions were due to commuting vehicles. As buildings become somewhat more efficient, it is reasonable to say that something like one-half of the global warming effect caused by office buildings is related to the use of vehicles by its occupants. The location of buildings relative to public transport is therefore an issue of no little importance in trying to improve the environmental performance of buildings, and in the context of most urban structures, this means high-density and mixed-use buildings.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the CANMET Energy Technology Centre (CETC) have recently joined forces to carry out research in this area; specifically to investigate the prospects for a broader adoption of high-density and mixed-use buildings that can adapt to changes in use over time.

CETC's interest comes from a recognition that, even though its C-2000 program has resulted in some very high-performance office buildings, it did not deal with issues related to location, density or mode of transport. The same is true for the joint CMHC-CETC Ideas Challenge program which applied C-2000 criteria to the multi-unit residential sector.

CMHC has been moving in the direction of encouraging higher densities for some time, but this study places a focus on identifying the generic features that households are looking for in their accommodation, and seeing if such features can be provided in a high-density and urban setting, in a mixed-use environment. The consideration of mixed-use environments is a recognition that downtown locations often require a mix of uses to make full economic use of sites, and that a synergy between uses is possible.

Two related studies are being carried out, both issued through CMHC's Technical Research Division. The Multifamily Housing for Community Sustainability study will contain four tasks relevant to the theme: assessing consumer preferences for specific types of mixed-use and high-density environments in a mid-rise setting; developing an inventory of solutions that have proven to be workable; developing two conceptual designs that are based on desirable characteristics and, finally, estimating the level of consumer demand for such forms of mixed-use environments. The Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton (RMOC) has also contributed funds to this study, which will give a location-specific flavour to the results.

A second and somewhat smaller study will investigate issues of adaptability to change in housing forms. The interests of both CMHC and CETC in this study are to identify features that can lengthen the useful life of buildings and systems by recognizing from the beginning that uses and activities will change over time. This can be relevant at the level of building uses or of system functions. There are many examples of office buildings being converted to residential uses (Vancouver, Toronto, London) because of the current surplus of office space, and of adaptive re-use of warehouses and other such solid structures; but there are very few examples of residential buildings being fully or partially converted to other uses. There are some obvious reasons: combustible construction and insufficient floor-to-floor height, but the issue is more complex. The Capers building elsewhere in this issue is an example: the ground floor uses will probably remain retail commercial, and the top floor will probably remain residential, but can the one or two floors in between be adapted to other uses over the next fifty years, and can the residential, office and retail areas adapt to changing requirements by within those uses?

A specific system that will be part of the adaptability study is the Open Building System concept, which is a combination of long-lived basic structures and flexible interior components. Over 2000 apartment units have been built following these principles in the Netherlands and a recent project was built in Japan. The concept was developed in the Netherlands for a social housing context, but applied to mixed uses it may offer a practical way of achieving a more sustainable approach to building design by ensuring that base-building components have a long life span, without impeding the need for continuous change of secondary elements.

The two studies described above will provide a good start to research in the area. CETC plans to begin a subsequent study that will try to specify some of the energy implications of mixed use and high density, and to develop detailed ideas for design of technical systems that are compatible but adaptable to change.

In both of the studies now underway, implemented examples of exceptional interest are being sought, and if you know of any, please contact one of the study managers listed in the side-bar.


Ozone Comeback?

The New York Times recently [May 31, 1996] reported that ozone destroying chemicals in the atmosphere are declining for the first time, according to researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, Colorado. New ground level measurements on three continents and two Pacific islands detected a 1 to 1.5 per cent reduction from peak chlorine concentrations in 1994. The reserachers indicated that the stratospheric ozone destruction should peak between 1997 and 1999 and then the ozone shield should begin to recover. The most common chemicals responsible for thinning the ozone layer include chlorofluorocarbons, halons, and chlorine-based solvents. But the NOAA noted that levels of CFC-12, common in cooling compressors, are expected to continue to edge up because many old refrigerators and air conditioners contain it and because it lasts more than a century in the atmosphere.


Canadian Raw Materials Database

In previous issues we have covered the intent and status of the Athena project, which will (a Beta version is soon to be released) provide designers with information about the embodied energy and effects on ecological carrying capacity of a range of construction materials. We have now found out (better late than never) about a parallel project, the Canadian Raw Materials Database (CRMD).

According to Kevin Brady of Environment Canada, Phase 1 of CRMD will be completed by December 1996, and Phase 2 will begin next year. CRMD is being developed by Environment Canada (EC), the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and a number of raw material producers. The project was launched to provide data to small and medium sized companies to encourage them to consider the broader upstream and downstream implications of their products. The data will be usable by the producers to benchmark environmental progress, or by downstream companies to obtain a better understanding of the energy inputs and environmental releases of the materials they use to manufacture their products. When completed, the database will provide industry-averaged data on energy and raw material inputs and environmental releases of the raw material acquisition and manufacturing stages of the material life-cycle. Raw material industries participating in Phase 1 include the aluminum, glass, paper, plastics, steel and softwood industries. The methodology for compiling the data for Phase 1 has been completed and can be obtained from CSA (Document Plus 1116).

Phase 2 will provide environmental information from the energy supply industry to assess environmental implications of energy use throughout the product life cycle.

We asked Jamie Meil, one of the developers of the Athena project and a participant in the CRMD project, to tell us of the relationship between the two initiatives. Meil stated that the CRMD covers a wider range of materials, but does not extend to the manufacturing stage (e.g. Steel billets, not structural sections, and does not include transportation energy). Also, the two projects use data in slightly different ways, and the CRMD breaks down the primary production cycle into sub-processes.

Hopefully, these two projects will eventually use consistent and complementary data sets.


Canada / Japan Workshop

A one-day workshop was recently held in conjunction with Globe '96 by the ministries of environment of Canada and Japan. The event provided an occasion for representatives from several APEC, OECD and OAS countries to compare notes on environmental initiatives in their respective jurisdictions. Several of these initiatives related to the building sector, and we bring you some highlights here.

Tetsuro Fujitsuka, Deputy Director from the Strategic Planning Division of Japan's Environment Agency, outlined government targets for reductions in energy consumption and environmental releases of the existing building stock. These targets aim for the following reductions by the year 2000, relative to existing levels:
Electrical consumption: to 90%
Office building water consumption: to 90%
Building fuel consumption: to 90%
Office wastes: to 75%
Incineration wastes: to 70%
CO2: to "less than 100%"
No cost estimates were provided.

Dr. Anita Breyer from Germany's environmental ministry provided an overview of environmental initiatives in Germany, which have to be related to two background issues in order to be understood. The first is the highly decentralized nature of government in Germany - whereas the Federal Government employs 600,000 people, the Laender (equivalent of Canadian provinces) employ 2.5 million and local governments employ 1.9 million people. Schools, universities, police and the courts are all at the level of Laender. Federal-level initiatives therefore consist of demonstrations, information, dialogue and assistance. Baden-Wurtemburg (one of the Laender) is a leader in the field and has established eco-management in three municipalities.

Another factor of relevance is that Germany is moving its capital from Bonn to Berlin. Understandably, much of the current federal effort in buildings is therefore concentrated on the large building program associated with this move. Government building sector strategies include:
No mechanical air conditioning in office buildings;
Use of cogeneration and solar energy;
The use of ÒecologicalÓ materials, e.g. low emissions, low embodied energy, high recycled content;
Reductions in waste, water and transport;
Energy reduction targets in retrofits of 20%.

The approach being used is the implementation of an eco-management system, designed to include consideration of regulations, enforcement, policies, goals etc. The German Eco-Management and Auditing System (EMAS) is their equivalent of ISO 14000.


Language and Interoperability

For Further Information
contact :

Nils Larsson
CANMET Energy Technology Centre
Natural Resources Canada
Fax: 613 232 7018
email: larsson@greenbuilding.ca

A major stumbling block for designers and building scientists who want to work in a more systems-integrated manner is the difficulty of exchanging information related to the nature of performance of systems in the building. Part of the problem, of course, is the craft nature of construction, which has left us with a trades-oriented specification format. This is all but useless for purposes of analysis or the exchange of data between computers, which are very fussy about ambiguity. There is, in short, no accepted way of describing components or systems that is unambiguous and is accepted by all disciplines. Some improvement was seen in the 1970's, when the CIB and SFB launched a project to describe building components and systems in a more rational way. This work languished, but was picked up in the 1980s in the form of a standards group which began developing the STEP protocol. None of this has made much of an impression in North America, where a trades orientation, accompanied by feet and inches, still dominates.

There is some light on the horizon, mainly attributable to major software developers. As we noted earlier, a consistent and unambiguous taxonomy is essential if software packages are to exchange of information about buildings and their parts. There are well-developed programs for design, drafting, costing and other mainstream design functions, but there is an increasing need to link these with other, more esoteric programs, such as energy simulation, ray tracing or computational fluid dynamics. Major software developers have therefore come to see an increasingly attractive economic potential in establishing better links between programs.

The resulting initiative is a non-profit foundation called the Industry Alliance for Interoperability, or IAI. We first heard about this from colleagues at Lawrence Berkely National Laboratories (LBNL), who are participating in the work of the group. Other prominent founding members include Autodesk, Archibus, AT&T, Carrier, HOK (a large architectural firm), Honeywell, JB&B (engineers), Primavera Systems, Softdesk, Timberline and Tishman Research Corp. That's quite a line up of prominent U.S. organizations, most of which have a strong commercial interest in seeing this venture succeed. Although U.S. dominated, the IAI is open to membership by Canadian or organizations from other countries.

The IAI will not release software, but it (and its members) will own and define four major blocks of intellectual property: a reference object model definition, conformance criteria, implementation guidelines and a model exchange requirements specification. Software vendors will then develop their own unique implementations, but they will all be able to exchange information through an Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) Model Exchange. The Industry Foundation Classes include conventional discipline related fields, such as Architecture, Interiors, Structure, Electrical, etc., but the definition of IFCs will be extensible and continually evolving. Through this organizational model, a building taxonomy will hopefully emerge that uses a rational object-oriented structure that can be used for software data exchange and a variety of building performance analysis tools.


Next Generation Simulation Software

For Further Information
contact :

Jean-Michel Nataf
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories
email: jmnataf@lbl.gov

Jean-Michel Nataf of LBNL gave us a brief overview of a recent expert workshop sponsored by LBNL and DOD. The assembled experts (we confess not knowing which ones) were asked to vote on features they want to see in a next-generation energy simulation tool. The experts made their responses with a view to influencing the future development of DOE-2, BLAST and BestOf (the merged DOE and BLAST). A sample of their ranked responses were (in order):
Collaborative integrated energy design (inter-disciplinary);
Air flow modelling;
Student and practitioner education (in use of);
Comfort evaluation;
Adaptable interface according to user type and stage of design process;
Flexible system and plant modelling;
Code compliance - energy and environmental impact.

We find it noteworthy and cheering that the top priority was for developments that would facilitate inter-disciplinary work.


U.S. and Canadian System Protocols

For Further Information
contact :

Winston Heatherington
Public Works and Government Services Canada
Tel: 613 941 5576

Or:
Tom Bowling
Tom Bowling and Associates
Tel: 613 234 6494

The ASHRAE Journal, the official magazine of the distinguished U.S. based engineering organization, devoted much of its February issue to describing BACnet, a data communications protocol for building automation and control networks. The theme of the articles is the considerable long-term potential of a common protocol which will make it easier for a variety of building or equipment control systems to communicate. The coverage brought to mind the fact that Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) has carried out considerable work in this area for years, resulting in a system called the Canadian Automated Building protocol or CAB.

People who have expertise in this area have told us that the CAB system has considerable technical merit, so its lack of visibility is a little puzzling. Some light has been shed on the subject by Tom Bowling, a consulting engineer specializing in telecommunications issues. Mr. Bowling was recently invited to an event called CAB Protocol Developers' Industry Consultation Workshop (we are developing the belief that people who give names to workshops are paid by the word), and he provided the following notes. We should first explain Mr. Bowling's bias: he feels that CAB is the most flexible and universal building services control system in the world. So much for Canadian modesty.

The meeting brought together some thirty developers, manufacturers and PWGSC staff to discuss CAB's status and prospects. Apparently, some half a dozen government buildings are being equipped with the CAB system and PWGSC's intention is to provide about 250 buildings with the system. There are also moves to make the system a national standard. However, some serious problems were raised at the workshop. PWGSC has suffered some serious budget cuts at a time when the system needs more funding if it is to succeed. The role of PWGSC will be reduced to that of Design Authority and even the test facility is being mothballed.

A second problem emerged. Industry representatives were perturbed by the lack of an approved Operators Work Station, against which their products and systems could be Type Approved. Further, they saw no clear method being proposed for approval of contractors.

Mr. Bowling feels that there is only a two-year window of opportunity for the widespread introduction of this system, and that if the potential is grasped, CAB could become an international standard, with considerable benefits accruing to Canada. In the meantime, the BACnet systemhas been approved and is obtaining good support from ASHRAE. The strength of U.S. industries, the relative weakness of the Canadian industry, coupled with budgetary restraints faced by PWGSC, leaves the outcome in doubt.

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editor
Nils Larsson
larsson@greenbuilding.ca 

webmaster
Woytek Kujawski
kujawski@intranet.ca -  INPOL Consulting

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