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Building Enclosure Archives - Morrison Hershfield

Dec 06

Facades+ Seattle: Optimizing Residential Design – Pursuing a Housing Model for the Seattle Area

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The Facades+ series is back in Seattle! This year’s Seattle program includes three morning sessions covering issues unique to the Puget Sound, as well as in-depth afternoon workshops. The event will take place on Friday, December 6 at the Motif in downtown Seattle.

More information and registration here.

Session Overview: Optimizing Residential Design – Pursuing a Housing Model for the Seattle Area

Over the last decade, Su Development and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson have collaborated on a series of residential towers in Bellevue, Washington. What renders the projects so unique is the vertically integrated approach established by Su Development; the development firm, founded by engineer John Su, designs and fabricates its own custom facade systems. This panel will explore both the relationship between the stakeholders of the projects, and present a dive into the customized window wall modules of the towers.

Stéphane Hoffman, Vice President & Senior Building Science Specialist, will participate in this panel session at 10:10 am.

Nov 27

AIBC Professional Development Series: Precast Sandwich Panels – Resilient Building Enclosures

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The Architectural Institute of British Columbia’s (AIBC) Fall Professional Development Series is back, and we’re excited to participate! This year’s sessions will focus on innovative architectural case studies.

More information and registration here.

Session Overview: Precast Sandwich Panels: Resilient Building Enclosures

Simon Fraser University’s new Sustainable Energy and Engineering building is a state-of-the-art post-secondary facility at the Surrey campus. The landmark building is a five-storey structure of approximately 20,450 m2, purpose-built to house the new Sustainable Energy and Engineering program. The building façade features alternating strips of white precast sandwich panels and glazing, resembling a geometric pattern of electrical circuit boards. The project’s fast-track delivery requirements necessitated the use of prefabricated precast building components for the façade to not only allow the building to meet tight government funding deadlines, but also provide a high performance and sustainable building with reduced maintenance to meet SFU’s facility requirements.

This presentation provides an overview of precast panel assembly and its advantages and disadvantages over poured-in-place concrete wall. Design and construction challenges and solutions implemented will be discussed.

This session will be co-presented by Building Science Consultants Harold Louwerse and Loveleen Atwal.

Nov 11

IIBEC Building Enclosure Symposium: Architectural Sheet Metal

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The IIBEC (formerly RCI, Inc.) Building Enclosure Symposium is a two-day educational program offering cutting-edge information regarding design, construction, maintenance and repair of modern and/or older building envelopes. This year’s event is headed to Kentucky, and we’re excited to join the program! The Symposium will take place on November 11-12, 2019 in Louisville.

Registration and more information here.

Session Overview: Architectural Sheet Metal – Lessons Learned by a Third-Generation Tradesman

Prior to becoming a building enclosure consultant, Russell Raymond spent 17 years working as an architectural sheet metal worker in Louisville, KY. During this time, significant detailed information was derived from other industry professionals, time at the bench, as well as significant field experience with snips and soldering irons in hand. This experience—coupled with the last ten years as a building enclosure consultant—have given the presenter unique and well-rounded architectural sheet metal experience. While many in the industry proclaim elevated levels of sheet metal expertise, it is apparent during design peer review of these assemblies and numerous sheet metal installations that the skills needed for proper design and installation are lacking. The purpose of this presentation is to share the presenter’s experience and pass on both time-tested design nuances and installation techniques that will enlighten the intermediate and advanced consultant.

This session will be presented by Russell Raymond, Senior Building Science Consultant, on Monday, November 11 at 8:30 am.

Nov 08

BCBEC Conference & AGM: Insulated Precast Panels – Resilient Building Enclosures + Mass Timber on the Path Toward Zero Carbon Emissions

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BC BEC’s Conference & Annual General Meeting (AGM) is back! This full-day symposium provides a platform for industry dialogue on the challenges of building higher, faster and more cost-effectively, while adapting to changes in the building envelope industry. BCBEC’s AGM will take place on Friday, November 8 in Vancouver, BC.

More information and registration here.

Session Overview: SFU’s New Engineering Building: A case study of durability and resiliency using insulated precast concrete panels

Simon Fraser University’s new Sustainable Energy and Engineering building is a state-of-the-art post-secondary facility at the Surrey campus. The landmark building is a five-storey structure of approximately 20,450 m2, purpose-built to house the new Sustainable Energy and Engineering program. The building façade features alternating strips of white precast sandwich panels and glazing, resembling a geometric pattern of electrical circuit boards. The project’s fast-track delivery requirements necessitated the use of prefabricated precast building components for the façade to not only allow the building to meet tight government funding deadlines, but also provide a high performance and sustainable building with reduced maintenance to meet SFU’s facility requirements.

This presentation provides an overview of precast panel assembly and its advantages and disadvantages over poured-in-place concrete wall. Design and construction challenges and solutions implemented will be discussed.

This session will be presented by Building Science Consultant Harold Louwerse.

 

Session Overview: Mass Timber for Building Envelope Performance on the Path Towards Zero Carbon Emissions

The building envelope is an integral part of architectural expression and is quickly becoming the innovative system utilized to realize carbon emission reduction goals. More and more the building envelope’s roofing, glazing, and waterproofing assemblies include Mass Timber. These assemblies are critical for ensuring durability but challenged to increase envelope performance without creating environmental barrier deficiencies.

On the path towards Zero Carbon Emissions, the implications of building envelope performance are increasingly harder to ignore, as the traditional trade off of efficiencies from the MEP systems can no longer account for the poor envelope performance. Instead, the full potential of each is needed to leverage increased carbon offsets. Mass Timber is carbon sequestering, rather than carbon intensive, and capable of replacing steel and concrete as a buildings structural frame and enclosure. Mass Timber is also far less conductive than concrete or steel, pivotal for reducing thermal bridging.

New simulation models have derived in part from the increased pressure energy codes place on envelope performance, as well as from the advances in research and increased capability of computer simulations to analyze envelope assemblies. Mass Timber’s inherent level of precision is a compelling reason for furthering digital innovation by combining simulation data with 3D digital fabrication. Structural, manufacturing, and prefabrication designers can employ new digital tools to visualize and explore innovative structural connections while ensuring strategic integration with the building structure and the major MEP building systems.

Mass Timber digital design is becoming the solution for proving constructability, predictability of schedule, and sustainability while delivering an ideal process and data necessary for compiling a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Ultimately, LCA confirms the potential for achieving zero carbon emissions when building with Mass Timber, while building with wood provides a renewed capacity for architectural aesthetic expression and envelope performance.

This session will be presented by Eric Wood, Mass Timber/Facade Specialist.

Oct 11

Facades+ Toronto: Building Envelope Design on the Path to Net Zero

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The Facades+ conference series is crossing the border! The first Facades+ conference in Canada will be held on Ocotber 11 in Toronto, and we’re excited for our local team to join the program! This full-day symposium will showcase presentations and panels focused on the evolution of facade technology and innovative, sustainable design practices.

More information and registration here.

Workshop Overview: Implications for Building Envelope Design on the path toward Net Zero Performance

The building envelope (cladding, glazing and roofing assemblies) is an integral part of the architectural expression of any buildings. In recent years the advent of computer simulations to assist in the structural design and manufacturing of building envelope assemblies has allowed for increasingly complex designs. However, in the past ten years, energy codes have significantly increased the energy performance as part of a trend towards high performance buildings. This has put increased emphasis on the role building envelope design plays in minimizing the energy required to operate buildings while still achieving the desired architectural design. At the same time, research and progress in the ability of computer simulations to analyze the performance of envelope assemblies have led to significant breakthroughs in the understanding of how these assemblies perform especially how thermal bringing affect their effectiveness. On the path towards net zero performance, the implications of the envelope performance is increasingly harder to ignore as the traditional trade off of efficiencies from the MEP systems can no longer account for the poor performance of the building envelope. Early design considerations of the effective performance of the building envelope is becoming crucial to the success of projects. This has led to the development of new design guides, tools and metrics to inform designers and assist them in making educated decisions on the design of the building envelope early in the design process to ensure performance expectations can be met while still achieving the desired architectural design.

Learning Objectives:

1. Review current Building Codes and the trend towards Net Zero Energy as they relate to building envelope design including new requirements to address thermal bridges.
2. Learn how the performance of the building envelope in terms of massing, orientation, glazing ratio, shading, air leakage and thermal bridging can impact performance.
3. Explore how new design guides, tools and metrics can assist with the design of envelope assemblies for high performance buildings
4. Apply the Building Envelope Thermal Bridging Guide methodology to account for the impact of the design envelope for a high performance commercial building.

This session will be presented by Anik Teasdale-St. Hilaire, Facade Specialist, and Neel Bavishi, Building Energy Consultant. This session is part of the afternoon in-depth workshops that will take place at 1:15 p.m.

Oct 07

CaGBC ASBS 2019: Thermal Bridging and Envelope Design

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The CaGBC Alberta Sustainable Building Symposium is back for it’s 22nd year! This year’s event will feature three days of educational courses and project tours in the host city of Edmonton on October 7-9, 2019.

More information and registration here.

Session Overview: Thermal Bridging and Envelope Design

This session will run through the new requirements for thermal bridging calculations and design options. We will discuss the new NECB requirements as well as compare common assemblies and their previous thermal performance against the new detailed calculation methodology. This will result in how much more heat loss is actually expected in buildings, and how it affects sizing of systems along with energy code requirements.

While understanding how thermal bridging will affect the detailed design of envelopes it is important to have a practical understanding about the constructability of these details. The second half of the workshop will take attendees through examples as built of assemblies that have been constructed to mitigate thermal bridging.

This session will be co-presented by Grace Suri, Building Energy Consultant, and Julien St. Pierre, Building Science Engineer. It will take place at 12:30 pm on Monday, October 7.

 

Panel: Resourcing & Financing Public & Institutional Buildings

Susan Kapetanovic-Marr, Sustainability Specialist, will be moderating this panel on tools and processes specific to Government and Institutional Retrofit projects. The panel will provide insight on the Investor Confidence Project (ICP) and Municipal Energy Solutions. This panel session will take place at 2:15 pm on Wednesday, October 9.

Oct 04

The Condo Conference: Engineering Rapid Fire – Reserve Funds and Project Management

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The Condo Conference brings together Condominium Management, Realtors, Students and AEC Professionals for two days of education focused specifically on the Condominium sector. This year’s conference will take place on October 4th and 5th in Toronto.

More information here.

Session Overview: Engineering Rapid Fire – Reserve Funds and Project Management

The difference between property managers and project managers – they are not the same. Responsible reserve fund planning for patios, roofs, windows, exteriors and big interior and underground projects to name a few; ensuring you don’t create some costly long-term mistakes.

Join Nancy Longueira, Senior Building Science Engineer, for this panel-session with three other industry experts. This session will take place on Friday, October 4th at 9 am in the Gardiner Miller Arnold LLP Room.

Sep 10

PBEC: Mass Timber for Building Enclosures on the Path to Net Zero Carbon Emissions

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We’re helping the Portland Building Enclosure Council (PBEC) kick-off the new year of programs at their September Meeting! The September meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 10 at 12 pm/noon.

Join Eric Wood, Mass Timber Specialist, as he explores how Timber can integrate with the Building Envelope and help your project achieve performance goals.

Session Overview: Mass Timber for Building Enclosures on the Path to Net Zero Carbon Emissions

The building envelope is an integral part of architectural expression and is quickly becoming the innovative system utilized to realize carbon emission reduction goals. More and more the building envelope’s roofing, glazing, and waterproofing assemblies include Mass Timber.  These assemblies are critical for ensuring durability but challenged to increase envelope performance without creating environmental barrier deficiencies.

On the path towards Zero Carbon Emissions, the implications of building envelope performance are increasingly harder to ignore, as the traditional trade off of efficiencies from the MEP systems can no longer account for the poor envelope performance.  Instead, the full potential of each is needed to leverage increased carbon offsets.  Mass Timber is carbon sequestering, rather than carbon intensive, and capable of replacing steel and concrete as a buildings structural frame and enclosure.  Mass Timber is also far less conductive than concrete or steel, pivotal for reducing thermal bridging.

New simulation models have derived in part from the increased pressure energy codes place on envelope performance, as well as from the advances in research and increased capability of computer simulations to analyze envelope assemblies.  Mass Timber’s inherent level of precision is a compelling reason for furthering digital innovation by combining simulation data with 3D digital fabrication.  Structural, manufacturing, and prefabrication designers can employ new digital tools to visualize and explore innovative structural connections while ensuring strategic integration with the building structure and the major MEP building systems.

Mass Timber digital design is becoming the solution for proving constructability, predictability of schedule, and sustainability while delivering an ideal process and data necessary for compiling a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).  Ultimately, LCA confirms the potential for achieving zero carbon emissions when building with Mass Timber, while building with wood provides a renewed capacity for architectural aesthetic expression and envelope performance.

Jul 24

Facades+AM Minneapolis: Northern Enclosure

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Facades+ is bringing it’s AM series to Minneapolis! This half day event features three sessions covering facade and building science issues and innovations unique to the region. It will take place at the Hilton Minneapolis on Wednesday, July 24, 2019.

More information on conference sessions and registration here.

Stéphane Hoffman, Senior Building Science Specialist, will participate on the panel Northern Enclosure: Climate-Driven Strategies for High-Performing Facades.

Session Overview:

The growing demand for high-performance enclosure systems is a driving force for innovative facade solutions. Through the data-driven investigation of geography, materials, and energy usage, these leading building science practitioners guide projects towards sustainable solutions.

Jul 18

URM Seismic Resilience Symposium: Assessing the Impact of Insulating History Masonry Structures

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Unreinforced Masonry (URM) buildings present a challenge for earthquake-prone communities. This three-day AIA Oregon event will include lectures focusing on concerns related to URM buildings, including earthquake background, seismic upgrades, building codes and historic preservation requirements. It will take place July 18-20 at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

More information here.

Session Overview: Assessing the Impact of Insulating History Masonry Structures

When rehabilitating historic masonry walls, the question of insulating them is often raised. Whether to reduce energy consumption or to improve occupant comfort, insulating masonry is often perceived as beneficial yet it comes with potential pitfalls in terms of the long-term durability of the masonry. A quick review of 3D thermal analysis will provide better understanding of the real impact insulating masonry wall has on overall thermal performance of the building envelope. Hygrothermal and freeze-thaw potential analysis will provide insight of the factors to be considered when assessing the potential impact of insulating the masonry in terms of material durability. Case studies of mass and transitional (masonry encasing the steel structure) masonry buildings, undergoing building envelope retrofit are presented.

Stéphane Hoffman, Principal / Vice President, and Ivan Lee, Building Science Consultant, will co-present this session on Thursday, July 18.