the WHOLE design process

Published in Cities Unite, The Edge
written by Brett Marlo DeSantis
March 2012

The WHOLE design process

The building industry has many buzz words and phrases that you may recognize like “green design” and “sustainability.” You may have also heard “Integrated Design” or “Integrated Project Delivery.” If these phrases are unfamiliar, let me assure you they won’t be for long.

Green design is the practice of designing, constructing and operating buildings that support and improve the health of their occupants and the environment.

Integrated design is a collaborative method for designing a building. This holistic process involves a “whole building design” approach. A building, much like an organism, requires all systems to work together in harmony.

Conventional building design, residential and commercial, involves a hand-off method, a linear process. This hand-off may take place between owner to architect/designer and builder to occupant. This conventional method does not allow for the expertise of all system designers and their input early on in the decision making process.

Unlike the traditional design process where engineers and contractors enter at the end, integrated design welcomes these key players from the beginning. The result is a high performance building completed with a seamless construction process.

While I can imagine this subject might not rock your world. If you don’t know about it…you lose the opportunity to use it. Integrated design requires forethought. Designs need more time in the early stages to save time and money in the later stages.

Here’s what to expect. Use these guidelines to understand how an integrated design team would work on your next project.

First, define the project scope. What would you like your integrated design team to achieve?  What obstacles will they need to keep in mind? Research and prepare a primer of ideas and priorities.

Assemble the right team. Who will you invite to your team? Will it be engineers, architects, designers, contractors, builders, end-users, facility managers, community members—are all parties engaged?

Next, define project roles with realistic expectations and clear responsibilities. Communicate tasks so that work is divided, conquered and then brought back to the table for a timely design process. Commit to measurable goals. Align team around core goals or purpose.

Mark your calendars. Phase your project and schedule meetings for the beginning and/or end of these phases. Great communication is a must. This is a web of relationships that requires coordination, efficient management and a high level of organization.

Follow through in construction process. Maintain and monitor the systems in place to keep them running optimally.

You are getting the idea, so let’s take this opportunity to flesh out another buzz phrase to enter our conversation—first costs.

In the building industry, “first costs” refer to the once, up-front cost. The remaining costs of owning a home or a building through its lifecycle are: operating costs-continuous; maintenance costs- continuous; refurbishment costs-periodic; disposal costs or deconstruction- once and at the end.

First costs are currently the biggest excuse for not building green. So how much does it really cost? Some say ten percent more. Some say the costs in the end are the same. What is your basis of comparison?

First costs are comprised mostly of land and construction costs and are said to be 1/6^th of the life cycle costs. While operating and maintenance are twice that amount and never end as long as the building is in operation.

This integrated approach to the process of design allows for systems integration. It is a non-linear process which supports an understanding of relationships between systems such as: site selection, water, energy, materials, resources and indoor air quality.

One of my mentors often quotes Masanobu Fukuoka, “An object seen in isolation from the whole is not the real thing.” The basic elements of a whole system approach are based on the fact that life is whole and not fragmented, unique in every place and that we are inhabitants and not occupants.

Would you settle for anything less than a whole design?