SEPTEMBER 2016 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \
29
Building projects (both new construction and renova-
tions) are typically a response to a need for space that is
user-driven. Rarely is a new building constructed for a pop-
ulation that doesn’t already exist in an organization. Users
have already formed individual and cultural behaviors and
customs, and few projects seek to understand what these are
and how they should influence the design of the new space.
An example of how the Forte team incorporates build-
ing science into a project is by using a process called “eth-
nography.” Through ethnography, contextual surveys and
interviews are conducted with occupant populations using
a trained social scientist early in the design phase. The in-
formation extracted from this process yields valuable infor-
mation that is leveraged by the owner and design teams to
create the best possible spaces that are customized specifi-
cally for the occupant.
Working with one particular client’s workforce during
predesign, trained social scientists prepared an ethnograph-
ic study that showed potential issues that were specific to
existing occupant groups. These included a high percent-
age of introverts, a cultural avoidance of conflict and a
strong desire for control over their own spaces. Armed
with this information, building scientists helped craft the
owner’s project requirements to incorporate their social
needs.
When teams take a scientific approach to understand-
ing occupant-specific needs before the design starts, it can
dramatically change the entire design process for the bet-
ter. As it stands now, designers are often forced to make as-
sumptions and rely on intuition. The scientific approach
taken to develop the owner’s project requirements allows
teams to incorporate metrics that will represent project
success. These include indoor environmental quality met-
rics that correlate to visual, auditory and thermal comfort,
as well as traditional metrics like energy use and cost.
Many people are unaware that most of the elements re-
lated to indoor environmental quality metrics can actu-
ally be modeled. While traditional building models focus
on energy use, IEQ software and research can be leveraged
for needs like thermal, auditory and visual comfort. While
energy efficiency remains one of the critical issues of our
times, too often spaces that perform well from an ener-
gy standpoint fail from an occupant comfort standpoint.
Finding solutions that work well for both requires more
robust analysis during the design phase.
The General Services Administration leveraged a tool
that Forte developed to predict the occupant productivi-
ty cost impact of each energy-efficiency strategy that was
being considered. On average, the productivity impacts
had 4+ times more cost savings than the corresponding
energy conservation strategy.
“As building scientists, we enjoy working with architects
and engineers because we tend to complement their ex-
pertise and support them in solving the few issues that
can really cause them headaches,” said Forte Project Man-
ager Stuart Shell.
\\
ELEMENTS
Best Practices
