“Green” school prototype

Happy New Year bloggers.

Following on from my accreditation as a NZ Green Building Council accredited professional, I’ve set myself a goal this year to develop a prototype for a “green” four classroom block for a typical New Zealand school. This prototype will be developed using criteria and standards laid out in the Education tool developed by the NZGBC as well as good architectural practice and design. I am keen to develop this in conjunction with either a school that might be interested or a group of students that maybe interested in assisting as part of a school project. Let me know if you know anyone. In the meantime stay posted and I will give updates throughout this year.

Take care and have an AWESOME year.

Good sh*t year

Couldn’t help forwarding this written by James Griffin in the NZ Herald Saturday spplement.

2010 is the year when planetary good sh*t needs to come to the fore.

Hoping for plenty of good sh*t for YOU!!

A week in Sydney!

Fran and I spent a week in Sydney last week, mainly attending a seminar, but had a few days to enjoy Sydney. It is over 20 years since I first visited Sydney and my how its grown up. Highlights included the hot!! weather, ferry trip to Watsons Bay to Doyles for lunch, ferry to Manly for walks along the beach, and just hanging out around Darling Harbour and the city.

Sydney has this lovely relaxed and friendly atmosphere about it for a large city – has all the expected hustle and bustle – with bumper to bumper cars and people, but manages to keep a little laid back.

Best find was the qvb cafe in the Queen Victoria Building – great coffee and free wifi to check and send emails, cruise the internet and to check in on line for our flight home.

Saw two very large commercial projects being built and it was interesting to note that both were 6 star rated green buildings.

And one other thing – Emirates and the new large Airbus 380(?) was awesome.

Now an “green” building accredited professional!

I have now become an Accredited Professional of the NZ Green Building Council.

This means that I have achieved the necessary knowledge, skills and ability to lead a building project through the design and construction to achieve “green” – ecological, environmental and sustainable design – objectives.

If you have ever thought that you would like a healthy, low energy consuming and environmentally friendly home, school or office building, then you NEED to talk to me first.

Wanna build with out going over budget????

1. Start with a realistic budget and realistic expectations.
Building costs follow a very simple formula,

COST ($) = QUANTITY ($ per sq metre) X QUALITY (sq metres).

Use this at the beginning, and do not forget to add to this consent fees, landscape, driveway, fencing, and consultant’s fees. Then on top add a 15% contingency.
ALWAYS get a professional estimate (by a registered quantity surveyor) prepared, and believe and trust in it, believe me, they know more about building costs than you ever will, even if your brother in law once built a dog shed out the back of the house!!
Then use the estimate of cost as your cost plan.

2. Stick to your cost plan.
If you’ve budgeted $20,000 for a kitchen, then you can not afford the $40,000 model in the glossy magazine, unless you are prepared to increase your budget!

3. Changes.
Changing anything will have an affect on costs. I hate hearing clients say, “It won’t cost much to add… will it?” Do not delude yourself. If you must make changes, get a cost, and check against your budget/ cost plan.

4. Decisions.
Make as many decisions as you can as early as you can. Do not leave decisions to the last minute – it will add cost AND time to the project. Believe me if you can make every decision before starting, ie colours, hardware etc, you will actually relax and enjoy the whole building process. Sure there will be tweaks to be made, but nothing to cause problems.

5. Do not allow provisional sums.
In your price from the builder get them to commit actual sums of money, not provisional sums. If they need information from you, or someone else, to do that, then make sure they get it. Builders notoriously allow low provisional sums to get the job.

6. Get three prices.
Get three prices for everything, well at least all major items. Ensure your builder gets more than one price for all sub trades, supplies etc.

7. Allow a contingency sum.
Always allow a sum for the unexpected. When you are starting, just ball parking the project, add 20%. Then as you define the scope and detail further this can be reduced to 10%, and once ALL the decisions have been made 5% should be fine. Only use this for UNEXPECTED situations, like bad ground etc, not for a better bidet. If at the end of the job you haven’t spent it, then treat yourself. You will have earned it.

8. Communication.
The better the communication between builder, client, architect etc, the better the relationships. The better the relationships the less likely the job will go pear shaped. The biggest frustration for builders is clients either NOT having the decisions made or CHANGING decisions. Refer to items 3 and 4 above!!

While I can not guarantee absolute success following these, you definitely have a far greater chance of arriving at the end of the project with your budget and relationships intact, feeling relaxed and satisfied.

Want cheaper buildings with less hassle??

Recently I came across a document that supported what I, and I suspect may other architects, have known for a long time. That there has been a long term decline in design and documentation (drawings and specifications) quality which corresponds to a decrease in construction process efficiency, ie more cost, more time and more hassles with your builder. The reason for this decline was clearly shown to be due to clients and developers applying pressure for the reduction of design fees to minimise cost. The irony, shown in the report, is that overall the project is costing more and taking longer to complete with more likelihood of legal disputes caused by contractual problems.

The report prepared by the CSIRO in Australia, while prepared in 2001, is as valid, if not more, today as it was then. The report based on a survey in Australia of 327 construction companies and 491 design firms noted,

The decline in design and documentation quality standards was shown to be directly related to reduced … fee levels ….

It would appear, therefore, that the levels of fees being obtained may well be significantly below those required to provide good quality design and documentation services.

The survey concluded that the decline in design and documentation standards also corresponded to a decline in construction process efficiency. This can be gauged by the extent of the occurrence on non-desireable events in construction, such as rework, variations, cost overruns, extensions of time, delays, disputes and further requests for information.

The results showed that where design and documentation quality was shown to be very poor, there was an average increase of building cost of 11%, where the design and documentation quality was shown to be average, the increase was 2.5%, but where the design and documentation quality was shown to be excellent there was a decrease of over 1%.

The report concluded,

Once clients and developers fully understand the value of quality design and documentation, it is hoped they would then ensure that project briefs are clear, concise and consistent, and that sufficent time and fees are available to allow designers to do their jobs properly. The benefit would be more projects completed on time, within budget and with a reduced likelihood of legal action caused by contractual disputes.

Green and Healthy Schools part 2

So what is a green and healthy school?

A green building, or sustainable building is an outcome of a design process which focuses on increasing the efficient use of resources. This includes energy, water, and materials while reducing the ecological impact on the environment. Further a healthy building is one that, provides a healthy indoor  environment through the proper level and quality of natural ventilation, air quality, thermal comfort, natural daylight, and the reduction in use of potentially inappropriate materials.

So how do we know if a building design is “green”?

The NZ Green Building Council has developed a number of rating tools that allows users and designers to set goals – what” shade of green” you consider to be appropriate. A number of criteria are used, against which a level of compliance is assessed and points credited. The more points overall the higher the rating. The criteria are as follows, Management, Indoor Air Quality, Energy, Transport, Water, Materials, Land Use and Ecology, Emissions and Innovation.

The total points credited is collated, and a Green Star rating assessed. While formal certification from the NZ Green Building Council is only available for 4, 5 and 6 star ( above 45 points), there are still substantial environmental performance benefits to be achieved from lower levels.

To become “green” we do not have to grow our hair and become hippies, living in earth buildings, making macrame hangers. Substantial benefits can be obtained by simple straight forward design decisions, that, while the building will not appear any different, will provide a higher quality environment for its users and contribute greatly to the welfare of our planet.

Green and healthy schools

Ever since I completed a special course in sustainable design at University for an autonomous house (i.e. nothing in, nothing out) I have held a fascination for low energy healthy buildings; now called green design, or environmentally sustainable design. Further as my architectural practice has become more and more involved in school buildings, I have held this hidden desire to design a green school.
It seems to me that it is incredibly important that the environment, both indoor and outdoor, in which our children are educated is conducive to learning; both in terms of a healthy place, and improved student performance.
A report carried out in the USA in October 2006, noted

Greening school design provides an extraordinary cost-effective way to enhance student learning.

Green school use an average of 33% less energy….

Some green schools are built on the same budget as conventional schools.

17 separate studies all found positive health impacts from improved indoor air-quality, ranging from 13.5% up to 87% improvement.

Greening school design is extraordinarily cost-effective compared with other available measures to enhance student performance

Why aren’t we doing it for every school building project??

This is good

How exciting is this, my first real blog. I have to start with this great little story I was told last week.

The story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, “This is good!”

One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation, the friend remarked as usual, “This is good!”

To which the king replied – “No, this is not good!” and proceeded to send his friend to jail.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake.

As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way.

As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend.

“You were right,” he said, “it was good that my thumb was blown off.” And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened.” And so, I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this.”

“No,” his friend replied, “This is good!”

“What do you mean, ‘This is good’? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?”

“If I had not been in jail, I would have been with you, and not here with you right now.”

In a very unusual way, the message here unfolds into exposing the following principle about life.

“Absolutely everything happens for a purpose; and out of what seems lik e adversity at the time; always comes good”.

I’m sure that if any of us care to reflect back on the tragedy’s, the heartaches, the ‘bad times’ in our lives, that we discover that we have really grown or developed during that period of time:even though the reflection may still cause us discomfort in some way.

It is in this way that we slowly gather experience and wisdom, and even though we may think or feel that it is unfair, that’s the way it is.

“This is good”. Many of our life’s experiences have saved us from some form of cannibals; it’s just that we often don’t know that they have at the time.

So, for a simple example to help with awareness: next time you may begin to feel you are being ‘wronged’ by being stuck in a traffic jam, think about the cannibals that could be lurking down the road a bit,but will be gone by the time you get there.

Now that’s a bit different, but worth trying: “this is good” – despite the circumstances.

It’s what we do…

Organising a new building is one of the most stressful activities that anyone can undertake. It is important that you choose people to work with who you can trust, and develop a good and honest working relationship with, people who will bring considerable creativity, experience and knowledge to the project, and people who will take the time to listen and understand your needs and budget constraints and who can use this creativity experience and knowledge to your best advantage.