FIRMS USING THE FRAMEWORK & THE TOOLKIT
Olson Kundig Deploys Questions in Design Process
“The COTE Top Ten Toolkit and the AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence are a natural fit with the way Olson Kundig approaches design,” says Vikram Sami, AIA, BEMP, LEED AP, the firm’s Director of Building Performance. “We think about buildings as a bridge between people and nature, and part of that is considering the impact of the built environment on its surroundings, now and in the future.”
To better integrate the Framework within their design process, the firm adopted a series of tools that push teams to engage directly with the Framework and Toolkit measures. One of these tools is a dashboard that guides design teams through a series of questions about their project to identify areas of focus. “The process takes only approximately 30 minutes, early in the design process,” says Sami. “It produces a spider graph or heatmap that highlights a number of areas where a project can improve its performance, helping to focus and inform design efforts.”
A second tool provides a deeper dive into the Framework, taking the ten measures and creating a rosette graph that highlights drivers, strategies and metrics for each. Sami adds, “It helps us consider design opportunities at a variety of scales – the building, the site and the region.”
The firm is currently developing additional early design tools that go deeper into some of the most important metrics. “We’re working on a dashboard that will help teams strategize about how to get to zero carbon,” says Sami. “It weighs both the embodied and operational carbon over the life of the building.”
Sami anticipates that these tools will have a lasting effect on the firm’s practice. “Integrating Framework measures doesn’t just improve building performance,” he says. “Ultimately it pushes us to create better and more interesting work.”