117
6.5.2 Bridging the Divide
In the 2012 Life Cycle Assessment Handbook’s final chapter titled “Life Cycle
Knowledge Informs Greener Products,” James Fava identifies the emergence of
software interfaces that will promote wider LCA adoption by the design disciplines
and “go a long way toward ensuring that life cycle environmental information is
used in product commercialization” (Fava 2012). This practical approach recognizes that it is unrealistic to expect non-specialists to embrace the rigors and statistical subtleties involved in formal LCA goal and scope definition, data inventory
collection, impact assessment, and iterative interpretation exercises. Fortunately,
software interfaces that marry digital geometric models with non-geometric data
and provide impact assessments over multiple environmental impact categories are
becoming increasingly available. Additionally, CPU and GPU hardware proceessing power continues its steady climb, setting the groundwork for a new generation
of real-time interactive dashboards. These new interfaces will potentially be able to
draw LCI data in and integrate it directly into the material libraries in designers' geometric models.
6.5.3 One Country’s Call to Measure and Assess
Calls are growing louder by both the design professions and the academy to have
sustainability data-drive design. The American Institute of Architects’ 2019
Framework for Design Excellence and the National Architectural Accrediting
Board’s 2020 Conditions for Accreditation both promote actionable sustainability
standards. The AIA Framework’s Design for Resources provides useful links to
LCA software resources and the International EPD Database. These voices are
added to numerous other professional academic, professional, and third sector
groups that have, for many years, been advocating for a science- and data-driven
approach to a more sustainably designed built environment.
In the summer of 2019, over 100 representative academic, professional, regulator, and student stakeholders gathered in Chicago. During a 3-day multilateral
forum. They finalized the main points driving the Conditions of Architectural
Accreditation, and a writing team of seven condensed the stakeholder findings into
the final 2020 Conditions for Accreditation. Six shared overarching values were
defined. One of which is environmental stewardship and professional responsibility.
It says that:
Architects are responsible for the impact of their work on the natural world and on public
health, safety, and welfare. As professionals and designers of the built environment, we
embrace these responsibilities and act ethically to accomplish them.
A fine statement but in order to be actionable, two more criteria, to be met by all
architecture programs, were included in the 2020 conditions:
6.5 Dominance of Geometric Data Models in Design Education
6.5.2 Bridging the Divide
In the 2012 Life Cycle Assessment Handbook’s final chapter titled “Life Cycle
Knowledge Informs Greener Products,” James Fava identifies the emergence of
software interfaces that will promote wider LCA adoption by the design disciplines
and “go a long way toward ensuring that life cycle environmental information is
used in product commercialization” (Fava 2012). This practical approach recognizes that it is unrealistic to expect non-specialists to embrace the rigors and statistical subtleties involved in formal LCA goal and scope definition, data inventory
collection, impact assessment, and iterative interpretation exercises. Fortunately,
software interfaces that marry digital geometric models with non-geometric data
and provide impact assessments over multiple environmental impact categories are
becoming increasingly available. Additionally, CPU and GPU hardware proceessing power continues its steady climb, setting the groundwork for a new generation
of real-time interactive dashboards. These new interfaces will potentially be able to
draw LCI data in and integrate it directly into the material libraries in designers' geometric models.
6.5.3 One Country’s Call to Measure and Assess
Calls are growing louder by both the design professions and the academy to have
sustainability data-drive design. The American Institute of Architects’ 2019
Framework for Design Excellence and the National Architectural Accrediting
Board’s 2020 Conditions for Accreditation both promote actionable sustainability
standards. The AIA Framework’s Design for Resources provides useful links to
LCA software resources and the International EPD Database. These voices are
added to numerous other professional academic, professional, and third sector
groups that have, for many years, been advocating for a science- and data-driven
approach to a more sustainably designed built environment.
In the summer of 2019, over 100 representative academic, professional, regulator, and student stakeholders gathered in Chicago. During a 3-day multilateral
forum. They finalized the main points driving the Conditions of Architectural
Accreditation, and a writing team of seven condensed the stakeholder findings into
the final 2020 Conditions for Accreditation. Six shared overarching values were
defined. One of which is environmental stewardship and professional responsibility.
It says that:
Architects are responsible for the impact of their work on the natural world and on public
health, safety, and welfare. As professionals and designers of the built environment, we
embrace these responsibilities and act ethically to accomplish them.
A fine statement but in order to be actionable, two more criteria, to be met by all
architecture programs, were included in the 2020 conditions:
6.5 Dominance of Geometric Data Models in Design Education