Rating Systems | Form Follows Performance

Rating Systems

How do BREEAM, LEED and DGNB Compare?

by Jens Voshage on Mar 17, 2013 • No Comments

Building Performance Analysis / Rating Systems

Healing the Materials Supply Chain: The Google Story

by Jens Voshage on Mar 7, 2013 • No Comments

Specifying sustainable materials is now going beyond LEED requirements such as recycled content and low-VOC’s to address concerns about manufacturing processes, toxicity and environmental justice. Multiple materials red-lists and tools have been developed to raise awareness amongst architects, designers and clients about these issues. However, the complexity and time involved in vetting materials using these...

Building Performance Analysis / Design / Rating Systems

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden: A Living Building Takes Shape

by Jens Voshage on Feb 26, 2013 • No Comments

One of the world’s first living buildings is taking root on Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden’s historic Oakland campus in Pittsburgh, PA. The Center for Sustainable Landscapes, slated to open in spring 2012, will produce all its own energy, and capture and treat all water on site, literally having as much impact on the environment...

Architecture / Building Performance Analysis / Design / Rating Systems

The Bullitt Center – Seattle: A Living Building Challenge Project & A Model for Change

by Jens Voshage on Feb 23, 2013 • No Comments

The Bullitt Center – Seatte: A Living Building Challenge Project & A Model for Change Speaker: Margaret Sprug – Living Buildings Architect – The Miller Hull Partnership Sustainable Design & Development Conference , Bellingham, November 8th, 2012 Presentation of 45 minutes

Architecture / Design / Rating Systems

Living Proof

by Jens Voshage on Jan 12, 2013 • No Comments

A video story of the Bullitt Center, which is designed to be the “greenest commercial building in the world”. Comment on Vimeo: Impressive that the City of Seattle created a demonstration code to allow this innovative project to blaze trails! “The Bullitt Center, previously the Cascadia Center, is a commercial office building under development in...

Design / Rating Systems

Form Follows Energy: Achieving the Passive House Standard

by Jens Voshage on Dec 2, 2012 • No Comments

This is the fourth in the 2012 series of web seminars sponsored by the AIA Housing Knowledge Community. J.B.Clancy, AIA, discusses the design and construction of a Passive House in northern Vermont. This house was the first Certified Passive House in the U.S. for Habitat for Humanity, the first Passive House in Vermont and the...

Architecture / Design / Environment / Rating Systems / Urban Planning

The Living Building Challenge Documentary Semifinalist at Filmmaker Competition

by Jens Voshage on Nov 16, 2012 • No Comments

THE LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE is a Semifinalist in the $200,000 FOCUS FORWARD Filmmaker Competition and is in the running to become the $100,000 Grand Prize Winner. It could also be named an Audience Favorite if it’s among the ten that receives the most votes. If you love it, vote for it. Click on the VOTE...

Architecture / Design / Rating Systems

International Living Future Institute Launches Building Products Transparency Label Program

by Jens Voshage on Oct 23, 2012 • No Comments

By providing manufacturers and specifiers of building materials a clear, elegant and informative ‘nutrition-label’, Declare aims to transform the marketplace through transparency and open communication. Declare aligns with the Living Building Challenge by providing product transparency in support of the program’s Red List and Appropriate Sourcing Imperatives, streamlining material documentation and project certification. Select products...

Architecture / Design / Policy / Rating Systems / Urban Planning

TED: Vicki Arroyo – Let’s Prepare for Our Homes and Cities for the New Climate

by Jens Voshage on Oct 18, 2012 • No Comments

Great TED Talk: Set aside the politics: Data shows that climate change is happening, measurably, now. And as Vicki Arroyo says, it’s time to prepare our homes and cities for the new climate, with its increased risk of flooding, drought and uncertainty. She illustrates this inspiring talk with bold projects from cities all over the...

Design / Rating Systems / Urban Planning

British Columbia Community Announces Plans for World’s First Living Neighbourhood

by Jens Voshage on Oct 15, 2012 • No Comments

UniverCity, the award-winning sustainable community located on top of Burnaby Mountain, adjacent to Simon Fraser University just an half hour bus ride out of Vancouver, BC aims to be home to the world’s first community designed as a Living Neighbourhood as part of the Living Building Challenge. This new phase of the community will eventually...

Building Performance Analysis / Design / Rating Systems

Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) Version 7 (2012)

by Jens Voshage on Sep 22, 2012 • No Comments

The Passivhaus Institute has recently released a new version of the Passivhaus Planning Package, called version 7. New features include: New globally applicable requirements for Passive House residential buildings New EnerPHit requirements for energy retrofits An improved user interface Upgraded window calculations (enhanced accuracy for window and façade data entries) Improved data input and dimensioning...

Design / Environment / Rating Systems

Planting Buildings – The Living Building Challenge at the Bioneers Radio Series

by Jens Voshage on Sep 15, 2012 • No Comments

Listen to this 2010 interview with architect Jason McLennan. He designed the Living Building Challenge to raise the bar on green building: meet or exceed what nature provides. While the standards seem impossibly high, it may be simpler than we imagined. A living building is like a flower, planted and rooted to its place. It...