June 27, 2006

Academics and practitioners to research sustainability in design and building sector

FAZEENA SAMAD

staff writer

TORONTO

A new research network aimed at improving design practices in the built environment is taking shape at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, BC.

The Canadian Design Research Network (CDRN) is a consortium of 14 architecture and design schools from across Canada, including government agencies, professional design practices, non-governmental organizations, and industry partners.

The goal of the network is to research issues relating to productivity and sustainability in the design and building sector.

“Our focus on a lot of the projects on the built environment, not only the design of the actual building, but also their surrounding, like landscape architecture and also the items and products people bring into the buildings they inhabit,” explained Douglas MacLeod co-network director for CDRN.

“This type of research has never been funded in Canada, in fact it is rare in other parts of the world; design has always been design and research has always been research.

“The idea of putting them together, the creativity of design, and the rigor of research, it’s innovative.”

The CDRN is funded by the Networks of Centres of Excellence, and will bring together practitioners from various sectors such as engineering, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and industrial design to collaborate on common problems and solutions.

The network will use the knowledge and expertise gathered from participants in six key areas to help practitioners improve their methods of design and architecture.

Research will focus on: Sustainability, advance design technologies, fabrication, interactive technologies, design visualization and simulation, and visual analytics, all chosen because of their impact on the study and practice of design.

Specifically, the network is hoping to create innovative techniques that will limit the amount of greenhouse emissions as well as increase worker productivity through design.

“Design has always been design and research has always been research.”

Douglas MacLeod - CDRN

“Thirty per cent of greenhouse gases are emitted through the heating and cooling of buildings and that is something we would like to look at through our sustainability theme,” MacLeod noted.

“With good research and input from the different sectors, I think we can make a big difference across the entire construction industry in reducing greenhouse emissions.”

MacLeod noted that the network will focus on productivity within the construction sector in order to understand why productivity has been declining.

The CDRN states “the overall stagnation of Canadian productivity is largely due to an 8.3 per cent decline in construction productivity in Canada over the past three years.

Design is the most cost-effective and efficient means to reverse that trend.

And the stakes are high — even a one per cent increase in productivity in the design and construction industries would save close to $1 billion each year in Canada alone.”

In addition, CDRN will also look at new concepts for design to help boost workplace productivity.

“It is an interesting idea; but building better means increased productivity,” explained MacLeod.

“Take for example, what happened with Lockheed Martin in California. They refitted their entire facility to provide more daylight, which not only decreased energy cost but also had the side-effect of increasing worker productivity by 10 to 15 per cent.”

To illustrate the connection between design and productivity, MacLeod also quoted a recent UK study on design index which shows companies practicing “good design” outperformed the Financial Times Stock Exchange Index by 200 per cent (in both good and bad periods).

“What the study shows is that companies willing to embrace the idea of good design can be reap the competitive benefits in terms of productivity and profit,” he said.

“It is a study we are hoping to replicate in Canada.”

MacLeod says the challenge for design practitioners is not so much a lack of techniques and tools, but time limitations and a lack of dialogue between the different sectors.

He hopes that the research network will fill this gap by connecting the different facets of the industry to create a more sustainable energy-efficient built environment.

“One of the saddest things is that a lot of the design tools and techniques for designers and architects in the industry in general are all ready out there, but what we don’t have is a good forum for sharing them, that’s why the network is so important,” he told Daily Commercial News.

The CDRN plans to organize a series of themed events to help communicate its research findings to various industry sectors.

Small workshops will be organized to offer hands-on experience while larger formal seminars will feature lectures by industry professionals.

Plans also include regular publications and the “mobilization” of graduate students in the design field.

“CDRN is taking an innovative and inclusive approach to design, we are interested in talking to people from the construction industry, designers, architects, and landscape architects,” said Macleod.

“We are trying to establish a forum where they can access up-to-date information on the design industry to create more productive environments.”

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