The Net-Zero Energy Buildings Conference II:

Technologies, Materials, and Systems for Getting to Zero

Join us for Architectural Record and GreenSource‘s Innovation Conference.

Net-zero energy buildings are necessary and technically possible. But, because of cost and the technical sophistication required, few buildings have received this exalted status.

So, how do architects, engineers and building designers improve their understanding of the issues and technologies necessary to get to zero? By attending this year’s Innovation Conference. We’re bringing attendees more advanced systems and materials, more stimulating real and hypothetical case studies, and speakers with unique, provocative points of view.

The Big Picture

Smarter Cities of the Future, Where No Building is An Island
Although some buildings can collect and store information about how they are using the energy that is delivered to them, most cannot use that data to be more efficient in the present or future, nor can these buildings share such intelligence with each other.

With little data and no means of analyzing or acting upon it, it is extremely difficult to balance the supply and demand of resources necessary to operate cities. Taken together these inefficiencies cause system-wide energy losses on a massive scale. Under these conditions it is difficult to put surplus power into the grid in a useful way, even if we do go to the trouble of giving buildings the capacity to generate it.

IBM Director of Corporate Strategy Colin Harrison's keynote address will help us imagine a time in the near future when intelligent buildings will collect and share critical data across networks in real time. Such systems will use building-integrated devices to create data on energy loads, help us understand user behavior, even the effects of microclimate on energy consumption. This will enable us to cut peak-demand loads, distribute resources where they are most needed, and to operate the grid efficiently, so we can live within an energy budget that is sustainable by our global society.

The Case Studies

Merck Serono, Geneva, Switzerland Architect Helmut Jahn, FAIA, has spent his career raising the technical components of buildings to the level of fine art, in the pursuit of architecture that is sustainable as well as  being beautifully crafted. Mr. Jahn, president of Murphy/Jahn Architects, will focus on Merck Serono, a complex of new and existing buildings located on the shores of Lake Geneva. Sustainable strategies include curtain wall protected with external stainless-steel blinds and interior fabric shades, the use of the lake water as a geothermal source for heating and cooling, and a humidity-producing rain cloud in the atrium. Photo: © Ranier Viertlebock

IDeAs Z² Net Zero Office Building, San Jose, California Few net-zero buildingshave attempted to take on one of the most common, most challenging programs: the office. Learn how EHDD Architecture transformed a 1960s tilt-up concrete structure into a bright, airy, net-zero energy office building. EHDD principal Scott Shell, AIA, will familiarize audience members with the wide-range strategies his firm used to pull it off: natural ventilation, radiant cooling, daylighting, and photovoltaics. Photo: © David Wakely

The Okhta Tower in St. Petersburg, Russia From its inception energy conservation was of paramount importance to the design of this 1,300-foot-tall twisting glass needle. RMJM technical design principal David Altenhofen, AIA, will explain the strategies used to design the unique and complex external envelope of glass tower that seemingly does the impossible: it requires minimal heating in a climate where temperatures dip to -20 Fahrenheit in winter, uses natural ventilation in the summer, while preserving views in all directions.  Photo: © RMJM

 

The Futuristic

New Stuff from the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology The Center for Architecture Science and Ecology, co-hosted by Renssalaer Polytechnic University and SOM, is at the forefront of the development of inventions and technologies that could make us rethink the way we build. Among the innovations that will be presented by CASE's director Anna Dyson and Carl Galioto, FAIA, Partner, SOM, are devices for dynamic window shading, advanced building envelopes made of ceramics, and active hydroponics systems that use vegetation to purify air and reduce energy consumption. Images: © Center for Architecture Science and Ecology Making Massive Crowds of Nanostructures: From Atomic-Scale Principles to Programmable Building Materials Imagine building skins that can bear a structural load, change their transparency in order to vary light levels, and open and close embedded pores to provide ventilation. Dr. John Hart of the University of Michigan will show how research into carbon nanostructures and the unique molecular structures being done by his lab could make these dreams a reality. Image: © www.nanobliss.com

 

The Fundamentals

Net-Zero Energy Buildings: Why We Need Them And How To Get There
Dr. Dru Crawley, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Team Leader for Commercial Buildings, Office of Building Technologies, will give attendees an overview of the federal government’s position on net-zero energy buildings and the steps it is taking to support researchers, architects, engineers, and building owners.

The New Generation of Super efficient HVAC systems
One of the great obstacles to achieving net-zero energy is that ravenous energy hog, HVAC. Peter Rumsey, PE, of Rumsey Engineers covers the fundamental ideas behind some of the newest technologies for cutting the energy consumption of thermal comfort systems for buildings. 

Building it Right: Fenestration For Net Zero Buildings
Because fenestration controls the impacts of daylight, temperature, and humidity on buildings, the decisions made during envelope design are probably the most crucial to the energy performance of any building, particularly those that aspire to net-zero status. Dr. John Straube, principal of Bulding Science Consultants, will give attendees an overview of the latest in fenestration design concepts.

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