Buildings consume a huge amount of energy – 48% of all that we use in this country. This represents a significant economic and environmental impact. For too many years, we’ve designed buildings to meet minimal energy performance goals – ignoring energy use or accepting it as a foregone conclusion. It’s time to change. We must consider energy in the earliest stages of the design process.
To that end, integrated design and the synthesis of design aspects is the best way to achieve the highest levels of energy efficiency in new construction. In a sense, it is a framework applied to the design process that holds the opportunity to completely remake the resource requirements of our infrastructure.
Integrated Design has four major components: climate, use, building design and systems. The design team looks at these to find opportunities and synergies between them. The result is a comfortable and productive built environment and a building that is more energy efficient than conventionally designed buildings.
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