Melding Green Design and BIM is Easier than it Seems |
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By Lauren Browne, ConnectPress Editor
BIM, or building information modeling, is a process in which a building’s data is generated, managed, and then hopefully coordinated and communicated with everyone so that everyone on the project is on the same page about the building throughout its life cycle. A program like Autodesk Revit facilitates this type of model management so that design and then construction of a project is as smooth as possible.
Sustainable design is a term that is blowing up right now in the AEC industry, as more and more people are becoming comfortable with integrating energy efficient practices into their buildings. When you combine intelligent sustainable design with the project management of BIM, you have the perfect recipe for the modern building.
In a recent Microdesk webcast titled “BIM and Sustainability” presenter Leo Salce, LEED AP architect/technical specialist at Microdesk, discussed just how easy software programs like Autodesk Revit make it on users to use BIM and incorporate sustainable design into models. An integral part of sustainable design is the LEED certification the building can receive if it meets a certain amount of requirements. The webcast showed how in using BIM, it can help meet the requirements for LEED certification.
First addressed was the issue that there are more benefits to designing green than reducing the building’s carbon footprint. Some of those benefits, according to Salce, was that building green is not necessarily more expensive, there are tax benefits, the building has an increased value from higher net operation income and better public relations, the building has a more competitive real estate holding for private sector improvement, and that studies have shown there are productivity improvements for employees that work in a green building.
Salce then explained how designing/building green is not a trend but with things like new laws emphasizing green building, government demands, incentives and of course oil prices, integrating sustainability into your designs, it is here to stay. “It’s important for firms to start thinking about this and to integrate LEED compliance into your Revit template through the use of custom shared parameters, formulas and scheduling,” said Salce. Revit users can then qualify for LEED requirements with the help of these templates because they can see if they meet requirements based on things like water efficiency, sustainable sites, material resources, energy and atmosphere and indoor and environmental quality, to achieve at least 40 LEED points.
Salce continued to discuss how BIM is just the first step in sustainable design, and design tools that are available either as add-ons or work in coordination with the design software provide easy ways to seamlessly incorporate green design. “It’s about an integrated design process,” said Salce.
So why isn’t green design more popular if it can be so easy? Salce gave examples of why more designers aren’t adopting sustainable design, including that it’s difficult to justify higher costs, document all the LEED points making the process complicated and involves too much paper work, the market isn’t comfortable with new ideas, and it takes too much time in the building cycle. But Salce provided reasons to prove those reasons wrong. Regarding higher costs, “by using BIM and simulation technology, you can get an integrated design process and then designers can run and test different solutions with instant results to help swap or trade costs to keep your budget,” said Salce. Then with the difficult document process, directly from the BIM model, LEED certification qualifications can be copied into an online qualification template. Regarding the issue of new technology, there is more demand every day for sustainable design, so slowly but surely, the industry will begin to adopt. And finally, addressing the concern over time, the webcast suggested to set the green design objective from the beginning, and make efficient use of time to avoid this problem.
Tools listed during the webcast that designers can use in coordination with design software like Revit were Integrated Environmental Solutions’ (IES) many green tools, Autodesk Ecotect and Autodesk Green Building Studio. Also geometry from Revit models can be used in EnergyPlus, and through a gbXML, Trane’s TRACE 700 can assist in the BIM process. Salce then provided hands-on examples from within Revit Architecture to demonstrate how easy it is to use these tools with your BIM model to achieve LEED requirements. Viewers watched as the gbXML export function was used to export the model from Revit into Autodesk Ecotect. From inside Ecotect, the thermal analysis was calculated. Salce noted that the same type of analyses can be done with IES software. Also IES software will generate reports like daylighting and views to help users apply for LEED credits. The software will let users know if they pass or fail the requirement.
Salce also gave an example of using BIM to digitally measure how much rainwater could be collected in run-off from a roof by adding new parameters of monthly rainfall and loss factor. By using the roof area from the BIM model and multiplying that by the monthly rainfall by the water evaporation loss factor, a designer can calculate the amount of monthly rainwater collection and use that towards a LEED credit. “You can use the foundations of BIM to approach compliance to particular credits,” said Salce.
Thus, through the webcast users saw how BIM and sustainable design can really feed off each other, so long as the designer allows the relationship to exist. Designing green may be different, but making the shift is, as demonstrated in the webcast, not as hard as it may seem.
For the complete list of tools for architects and designers that are interested in implementing tools to help them design greener, visit the Building Energy Software Tools Directory on the U.S. Department of Energy’s website at http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/tools_directory/alpha_list.cfm. For the complete list of tools that work directly with CAD programs like Revit through the gbXML function, visit http://www.gbxml.org/members.htm.
Lauren Browne is a writer and editor for ConnectPress Ltd. in Santa Fe, NM. She received her BA in English and a minor in journalism from Northern Arizona University.
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| Published 2009-05-21 00:00:00 |
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