We spoke with John Seitz, director of sustainable design at HOK Architects, about the direction of green building demands and practices.
How strong do you think the demand for sustainable design is right now?
Sustainable design has actually been a part of what we've been doing for more than 20 years. So far, our firm has completed 18 LEED-certified projects-including two LEED platinum projects-with many more in the works. We also have over 500 LEED accredited professionals, which I think speaks for itself. As far as demand goes, it's pretty strong, but the level of commitment varies from person to person and project to project. Some clients just want the minimum while others are far more ambitious and have their hearts set on platinum certification.
Do you think that the demand for sustainable design is being motivated by environmental benefits, or is the trend primarily based on return?
For the most part, it is-and has been-driven by economics. There are clients who are very enlightened as to what is going on with the environment, but it's still based mostly on return. I was recently at a green building group seminar here in the city. The attendees were all extremely focused on what's called "post-occupancy" evaluation studies. These are studies that are done after a building has been completed. The data on green buildings is still pretty scarce. We can evaluate utility bills to extract energy savings, but the other returns on investment are far more intangible. For instance, things like productivity and human health benefits are much harder to quantify. There is also a whole range of societal benefits. Take green roofs for example. Green roofs not only reducing cooling costs in your building, they also clean the air and reduce the storm water load on the city. These are things that benefit everyone, not just the owners of the building. I don't think that these larger societal benefits are being valued yet, partly because building owners aren't being compensated for it.
Most people are familiar with wind and solar power. Are there new technologies creeping into the industry that you think might catch on? What can we expect to see in the future?
I think the focus will be on upgrading the technology that's already available. Intelligent building controls are on the market right now, but they're improving all the time. We already have sensors that turn things like lights on and off when a person leaves a room, but you can take those controls even further by tying them together. Instead of having occupancy sensors that just turn the lights off when a room is unoccupied, the air conditioning can be turned off as well. You can even cut the power to electrical outlets that feed electronic devices like DVD players. All of those pesky little clocks on your TV and on your microwave-along with other gadgets that sip energy-can all be turned off to save power.
Looking forward, I think that the demand for carbon-neutral buildings is going take over what we do as architects. You can't pick up a paper today without reading about climate change. Businesses recognize the risks in not reducing emissions. We're going to be facing a far more difficult world to do business in. It's incumbent upon us to design buildings that use far less energy and don't contribute to climate change. HOK has committed to reducing firm emissions 50 percent by 2010 and becoming carbon neutral by 2030. Commitments like ours are going to become a lot more common as time goes on.
Are there any projects that you'd like to talk about that you think can be seen as a preview of where things are going?
There's a building in Korea called the U-Life Complex that I think is a true model of sustainable design. It's going to be built in a new city called Songdo that is currently under construction. The "U" stands for "ubiquitous." It's not only a very sustainable building, it's going to be a teaching tool used to demonstrate sustainable building practices. U-Life will generate its own power using building-integrated photovoltaics, wind turbine energy, and fuel cells. It will have bioswales [landscape elements designed to remove silt and pollution from surface runoff water] and a regenerative landscape designed to clean storm water, which will then be reused, and a gray water system that will recycle building water.
The list just goes on and on-the U-Life Complex will be fully day-lit, there will be electric vehicle charging stations that use solar power, you name it. If you want an example of the possibilities of green design, this building is it.
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