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NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

  • 1.  NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-21-2019 06:31 PM

    As a member of the AIA, I am NOT pleased with the support of the political ideology for all buildings to be NET zero by code adoption of the IECC. While I agree many innovations have come from research and development, I am not in support of weaponizing the Building Safety Codes to implement this wasteful strategy. It far more appropriate to apply natural life cycle replacement strategies and incentives . The forced compliance for ALL Buildings to be net carbon ZERO in the permit process and increased tightening of the codes has led to unintended results in most communities.

     

    The unintended consequences of the weaponizing Building Codes are clear---This practice needs to stop.

     

    1. Owners have chosen to recycle old space WITHOUT PERMITS & INSPECTIONS  mostly without the services of Architects and Engineers.
    2. The AIA has supported mandatory IECC regulations and spawned a new cottage industry for handyman and value minded tradesman to work without permits and inspections.  
    3. IT is very wasteful to toss out reasonably recyclable lighting fixtures and wiring rather than reuse it ends up in the landfill. The same can be said for aluminum window wall systems
    4. Retrofit kits may not have the engineering that support the UL labeling, so they cannot be approved for use in commercial projects. Again more landfill debris.
    5. HVAC systems are again the target of new refrigerants so they will no longer be supported in the USA but are fine in Mexico or most other countries.  Again they go to the landfill before there life cycle is complete.
    6. The owners complain that their portfolios cannot incur the additional funds so the projects die in the later design phase or during final costing prior to construction.
    7. While it may be a new boon for new manufacturing, we are killing our design existing opportunities for adaptive reuse and recycling these older structures.  

     

     

    Wayne Swan AIA President

    INTERTECH Architectural  Interiors, Inc

    6089 E Grant Road

    Tucson Arizona 85712

    (520) 298-6306

     

     



  • 2.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-22-2019 06:26 PM
    Yes, as you point out...….another jumblejamble for architects to have to deal with.....we are full of that and all of that adds to the cost of construction, cost to the owners.  I know that it will never end, but when is it going to be practical?  With all of these adjustments to the before unknown environmental negatives of construction materials and the new requirements that we correct them, in existing and future structures, are regulators ever going to consider the cost effects of their decisions?  My Lord, architects and engineers will have to bite the bullet, re-invent the world of construction and furnish our planet with structures we have never seen before.  We can do, but it has to be affordable to the common man, our main client, let's not forget.  FLW could spend whatever he wanted.....a rare situation that WE cannot delve into.

    ------------------------------
    Robert Stirling Morris AIA
    Principal/Owner
    Morris Architecture/Planning
    Canterbury CT
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-23-2019 05:29 PM
    I wish AIA would do what architects are supposed to do and look closely at a problem, like climate change, before jumping to conclusions that relieve us of the tension of uncertainty.  The topic is loaded today with political hysteria and some serious questions about the supporting science among scientists.  China burns more coal than all the other nations combined and continues to dig new mines.  The mandate for extreme measures in the US will have negligible effect on the overall carbon load.  AIA disappoints.  It seems to have lost sight of the optimized returns of the 90% solution.

    ------------------------------
    Donald Wardlaw AIA
    More Than Construction, Inc.
    Oakland CA
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-24-2019 05:52 PM
    Well-stated. If you've been to an AIA, USGBC or LEED event lately, the hysteria (and adherence to party line) is palpable. No one cares to question the many gaps, falsified data or anomalies that underpin "climate change". Debate will not be tolerated. Those who dare question will be called "deniers" and they will be shunned. Welcome to the woke AIA. 

    Richard Becker AIA, LEED AP
    Becker Architects Ltd
    595 Elm Place, Ste 225
    Highland Park IL 60035






  • 5.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-24-2019 06:04 PM
    Richard -

    What falsified data do you mean? The last international report was full of graphs and charts that looked pretty convincing to me. Do you mean that building greener buildings won't help much? That could be true, and I would very much like to see the transportation sector go at this as energetically as we are.

    I would also very much like to see sanctions on China for coal burning and mining, but there doesn't seem to be the political will for that, either.

    The problem I have with people who say the climate is always changing, and there have been large fluctuations in temperature before, is that they are not taking into account the large increase in human population and technological civilization. We are not trying to save the planet; the planet will do very well w/o us, if not better. We are trying to save human civilization. Most people don't care much about other species, but many people do care about themselves and their families. That's what's at risk here.

    Judith

    ------------------------------
    Judith Wasserman AIA
    Bressack & Wasserman
    Palo Alto CA
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-24-2019 07:21 PM
    Theres a lot of data that debunks current climate theories. Heres one of many...Watch the video clip at the end. View with an open mind and ask yourself why the data has been, um, "curated" this way. 


    Richard Becker AIA, LEED AP
    Becker Architects Ltd
    595 Elm Place, Ste 225
    Highland Park IL 60035






  • 7.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-24-2019 07:42 PM
    So, who is this guy? He almost had me until he started comparing the Green Building Initiative to the Communist Manifesto and saying that those of us who were trying to deal with this problem were trying to destroy "our way of life". Tell that to the inhabitants of the Maldives.

    Yes, 30,000 years ago humans crossed from Siberia to what is now the Americas - in animal skin clothing, and making fires by rubbing sticks together. These comparisons are relatively meaningless, at least to me. Is there a documented occasion when the New York subways were flooded during a tropical storm? There may have been similar storms in the past, but there were no subways. 

    I'm sorry you feel duped, but let's not stoop calling names, please, either in person or via links and videos.
    Judith

    ------------------------------
    Judith Wasserman AIA
    Bressack & Wasserman
    Palo Alto CA
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-24-2019 08:43 PM
    Agreed on his sarcasm, totally unnecessary, but put that aside and listen to his points on the packaging. Hard for any reasonable person to dispute something is going on here. I won't ascribe motives, just point out this is a credibility issue, among other matters.   

    Richard Becker AIA, LEED AP
    Becker Architects Ltd
    595 Elm Place, Ste 225
    Highland Park IL 60035






  • 9.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-25-2019 10:22 AM
    Why would scientists from around the world who have dedicated their lives to SCIENCE falsify their findings?  97% of scientists are in agreement that Global Warming is real and happening now. 

    ------------------------------
    Robert Larsen AIA
    Principal
    Robert R. Larsen, A.I.A.
    Denver CO
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-25-2019 06:03 PM
    It is very possible for a reasonable person, even after watching the video, to dispute that “something is going on here” if you mean accepting that much of current climate science has been carefully “curated” to support the "overthrow of our government, our freedom and our way of life”. A conversation about what the AIA should or shouldn’t do in the face of our changing climate should not devolve into presumptions that those who agree with much of the science have a hidden agenda regarding how our society functions. Scientists from all over the world are warning us of the dangers of a changing climate and they have concluded that the change is due to human activity rather than natural planetary cycles of warming and cooling. As architects we can respond to a changing world creatively and in a measured and thoughtful way, including questioning any assumptions, gaps and misleading data to get to the best answer. We are all in this together.




  • 11.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-25-2019 06:46 PM
    I welcome differing points of view.  The central issue here (apart from the AIA policy issue) is not whether the climate is changing or the earth becoming warmer.  There is no dispute over that.  It has been getting warmer, and the seas have been rising for around 15,000 years, since the end of the last ice age. (The sea level has risen about 400', wiping out the connection between North America and Asia, and the data suggests that the bulk of the rise happened in a relatively short period of time long ago.)  The issue is whether it is a crisis that will overwhelm us if we do not act now.  There is serious disagreement on that point among scientists.  My view is that if it is not a crisis, we should act in a different way than if it is.  So it is not a trivial question.  My mind remains open and I'm listening to different points of view.

    The 97% meme is an interesting one, though.  It stems from a research paper "Cook, et. al. (2013).  Cook didn't just say scientists agree the climate is changing due to human behavior, he claimed 97% of scientists considered the change to be "dangerous."  Cook's research and conclusions were pretty thoroughly debunked by another peer reviewed paper, Legates, et. al., (2013).  Many found the meme attractive and it grew to have a life of its own, apart from any basis in science.

    I would like to share a few links that may be of interest, but first I'd like to share one other notion that comes to mind, frequently, as an architect.  It stems from a question:  What is it we do?  What do architects and builders do all over the world, in every clime?

    We create structures that moderate the adverse aspects of the natural world, so that we have living and working environments that fall within the operating range of the human body.  And once we have solved that pressing problem, we find opportunities to enhance the experience, via design, of living in the environments in which we find ourselves.

    We are masters of adaptation.  We can make environments where people can live if it is 100° during the day, of -20° during the day.  So the question as to whether climate is a crisis or a challenge is important.  If it is just a challenge, it is what is has always been, even in times when the climate was different from now.  We would be wise to respond differently to a challenge than a crisis.

    For background on the 97% notion, the first link is to the paper by Legates.  The second link by Christopher Moncton (2014) is a more zoomed out overview of the same topic.  After that, are a couple links to well regarded climate scientists (Judith Curry and Roy Spencer) who are asking good questions on a regular basis.  There are many more like them.  Wattsupwiththat.com is a well known aggregator for those questioning conventional wisdom on these matters.

    Cheers, and the best to all.

    Climate Consensus and 'Misinformation': A Rejoinder to Agnotology, Scientific Consensus, and the Teaching and Learning of Climate Change

    The climate consensus is not 97% - it's 100%

    Climate Etc.

    https://www.drroyspencer.com

    ------------------------------
    Donald Wardlaw AIA
    More Than Construction, Inc.
    Oakland CA
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-25-2019 09:04 PM
    I like Bjorn Lomborg on this subject. He acknowledges the climate change that's happening but he's not a hysteric. He correctly assesses solutions vs perceived problems, economic costs, trade-offs (what you spend chasing solutions can't be used to address many immediate social ills). 

    Here's one of his thoughtful pieces on the subject

    https://nypost.com/2019/10/12/climate-change-activists-are-focused-on-all-the-wrong-solutions/




    Richard Becker AIA, LEED AP
    Becker Architects Ltd
    595 Elm Place, Ste 225
    Highland Park IL 60035

    www.drroyspencer.com

    ------------------------------
    Donald Wardlaw AIA





  • 13.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-25-2019 09:47 PM
    Diagram Showing the fluctuations over the past 22,000 years


    ------------------------------
    Justus Pang
    Las Vegas NV
    ------------------------------



  • 14.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-28-2019 06:25 PM

    And then there's the scientific perspective that actually measures current data, compares it to past data, and has a nearly perfect predictive record:

    https://electroverse.net/professor-valentina-zharkova-breaks-her-silence-and-confirms-super-grand-solar-minimum/?fbclid=IwAR3T1Wcczqk0EZMvZymlJj0M5RLqYwHYa2vDhrwGAO8euhqu7uRXvtGwuVA

    Glad I live in Southern California so my great-grand-kids will eventually have a nice winter home... ;-)

    Dr. Judith Curry is good one to refer to as well:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zk7Xfyv6k4&app=desktop

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/02/09/dr-judith-curry-speaks-out-on-climate-sciences-fatal-flaw-the-failure-to-explore-and-understand-uncertainty/

    The "climate change" hysteria is bad science at best, and a political canard of global proportions at worst.

    Individual Architects are free to hitch their professional reputation on this political issue or not, to serve their clients as they see fit.

    The AIA, on the other hand, has NO place doing this on its or its membership's behalf as a whole, using our dues to in anyway take a side in what is a political battle at the expense of its core mission of *serving the needs of our profession.*



    ------------------------------
    Michael Poloukhine AIA
    Owner
    ReSquare Architecture + Construction
    Los Angeles CA
    ------------------------------



  • 15.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-28-2019 06:39 PM
    Here's another good one by Judith Curry, in the Winter 2019 of City Journal. 
    Architects should be better educated on this subject, helping to inform others.

    "Climate Science's Myth-Buster"
    It's time to be scientific about global warming, says climatologist Judith Curry.
    by Guy Sorman






  • 16.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-23-2019 09:34 PM
    Rather than building the world has never seen before, let's build like they di before air conditioning and electricity. I believe it used to be called "passive sole", not there is Passive House. Not so complicated.

    ------------------------------
    Judith Wasserman AIA
    Bressack & Wasserman
    Palo Alto CA
    ------------------------------



  • 17.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-23-2019 08:26 AM

    Agreed. Well said!!

     

    Frank H. Radey, AIA, LEEDap

    www.radeyassociates.com
    100 Haddontowne Ct.
    Cherry Hill, NJ 08034
    T:  856-428-5503
    F:  856-429-5775 

    image002.png@01D08F03.58A92BA0

     


    Virus-free. www.avast.com





  • 18.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-23-2019 10:50 AM
    I think you know as well as I do that building owners and developers would rarely invest in fire sprinklers in their buildings if they were not mandated by code.  Neither would they build accessible restrooms.  The same principle applies here.  The planet we live on is dying!  Fifty percent of the species on Earth are projected to be extinct by 2050.  The rate of CO2 being added to the atmosphere is comparable to the rate which occurred during the first "Great Extinction" when multiple Siberian volcanoes erupted.  Building owners and developers are motivated in most cases by their pocket books.  They will not build to NET Zero standards unless it is mandated by code.  Our children deserve a livable planet.  Change is never easy.

    ------------------------------
    Robert Larsen AIA
    Principal
    Robert R. Larsen, A.I.A.
    Denver CO
    ------------------------------



  • 19.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-24-2019 06:36 PM
    Suggested reading:    https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/mass-extinction/#close

    ------------------------------
    Robert Larsen AIA
    Principal
    Robert R. Larsen, A.I.A.
    Denver CO
    ------------------------------



  • 20.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-25-2019 06:44 PM

    Whole-heartedly agree with the original post: not pleased.


    AIA is the Architect's association; lobby for our PROFESSION, the things that directly affect it and our ability to practice it freely and lucratively.

    Let the politicians hash out the politics of their own schemes like "climate change".



    ------------------------------
    Michael Poloukhine AIA
    Owner
    ReSquare Architecture + Construction
    Los Angeles CA
    ------------------------------



  • 21.  RE: NET ZERO INITITIVE supported by the AIA

    Posted 10-25-2019 07:14 PM

    "97% of scientists are in agreement that Global Warming is real and happening now."

    "Scientists from all over the world are warning us of the dangers of a changing climate and they have concluded that the change is due to human activity rather than natural planetary cycles of warming and cooling."

    No. Factually and categorically to both statements

    a) "Global Warming" <> "Climate Change.

    Most climate scientists and climatologists would agree that we appear to be in an overall period of warming that began about 700 years ago.

    b) After that, almost NO scientific consensus exists, with quite a bit citing pretty solid evidence CO2 is a lagging marker not a causal element.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/joseph-bast-and-roy-spencer-the-myth-of-the-climate-change-97-1401145980

    "The last international report was full of graphs and charts that looked pretty convincing to me. "

    Pretty pictures of predictive modelling is the only way to gloss over the weak to non-existent factual evidence and support the political narrative over the scientific one without seeming to do so.


    https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB125883405294859215
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-famine-of-fact-at-u-n-climate-panel-11567201352
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704188104575083681319834978

    "We are trying to save human civilization."

    When the cure is worse for mankind than even the worst-case disease they fear, any rational mind must take pause and question what's going on. Two Nobel prizes in economics were awarded to economists who proved this.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/on-climate-listen-to-the-nobel-1539125320

    Logically speaking, on the "climate change" issue, rather than spend $100T to "do our part" to control a climate 2/3 of the world (China, India, Russia) are NOT even going to bother with to not even result in 0.5deg cooling and with no guarantee that will do ANYTHING for global warming... why not simply accept that the planet is warming for whatever reason and re-tool to build adaptably for a world economy that still has $99T left to spend on other things FAR more troublesome to mankind like disease, famine, poverty.

    But ultimately, and to the OP:  NONE of that has to do with what the AIA is here to do: support our profession and us as professionals working in it. Let those who want to get into the politics of anything else do so on their own dime and time.



    ------------------------------
    Michael Poloukhine AIA
    Owner
    ReSquare Architecture + Construction
    Los Angeles CA
    ------------------------------