Lessons Learned from MassCEC's Triple Decker Challenge

Improving the efficiency of existing buildings and eliminating fossil fuel usage are vital steps to meeting states' goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout New England. Focusing on finding scalable and replicable models for building typologies, such as triple deckers, will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as increase tenant comfort and reduce energy bills. This session focuses on the best ideas and lessons learned from MassCEC’s Triple Decker Design Challenge.

Single Family Retrofit to Passive House EnerPHit Standards

When an experienced builder does a whole-house upgrade of their own home, you know it’s going to be done right. When that builder is Jesper Kruse, owner of Maine Passive House, you know remarkable energy efficiency will be the outcome. And when that house is the one Kruse himself built 20 years ago - the first house he ever built - well, you know it’s going to be an especially interesting adventure in single family retrofits. Kruse will explain why he decided to undertake this project.

The Glue That Binds PrePHab: How Designers & Builders SIMMplify Passive House

The typical picture of prefabrication – a panel being positioned by crane – belies the tremendous amount of required planning and interdisciplinary coordination. Single Integrated Manufacturing Modeling (SIMM) and off-site prefabrication work together as the glue that binds this collaboration.
 
Where many educational programs focus on the rapid installation and production benefits of prefabrication, this session emphasizes the coordinated up-front approach.

Historic Buildings & Climate Change Mitigation: Case Study of a Low-Carbon Renovation

Retrofitting vacant and underutilized historic buildings to PHIUS standards leverages an existing building’s embodied carbon, which combined with low carbon and carbon storing materials, can transform our historic buildings into carbon sinks. With careful consideration, the Federal Historic Tax Credit program can provide an additional source of funding for these ambitious Passive House projects. Currently under construction, Moran Square is one of the first PHIUS Historic Tax Credit projects in the US. The site includes a historic firehouse, a vacant lot, and historic three-story building.

Today's Acceptable Ventilation is Unacceptable

Current ventilation standards are based on odor instead of health. One cannot smell healthy air. Ventilation standards disfavor air quality in smaller residences and multi-family dwellings while excessively ventilating larger homes. Ventilation impacts our health, cognition, sleep, and disease transmission. This session provides background on today's ventilation standards and recommendations for creating healthy indoor environments. The Covid Safe Space IAQ calculator for reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission in buildings is introduced.

Low-Carbon Concrete & Steel Structures

The carbon emissions associated with the production of concrete and steel are significant contributors to the climate crisis, but these materials will remain over the next decade when much of the greatest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions must be made to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Structural engineers can directly influence the emissions related to these materials on their projects through design and procurement optimization and best-practices.

Piloting, Scaling & Committing to Healthier Materials

When it comes to toxic chemicals, there is an urgent need for market transformation. Occupants, tradespeople, and fence line communities are being contaminated by the chemical manufacturing industry, which raises concerns about environmental racism and injustice. We can support these communities by reducing and eliminating classes of chemicals from our buildings. 
 
This session presents four entities who have stepped up to the challenge: MIT, Colby College, Shepley Bulfinch, and Thornton Tomasetti.

Schools of Thought

At Bristol County Agricultural High School, the campus is the classroom. The site is an arboretum; buildings are structured with timber, encouraging conversations of carbon and land use. Composting toilets manage human waste using no potable water and promote conversations about soil health. Rainwater is harvested for irrigation and becomes part of an ongoing conversation about water use. These strategies prompt questions about resources and waste, energy, and water use and quality.

The Next Frontier: Material Transparency Across Disciplines

Transparency is the foundation for making informed decisions about the products we specify. The AEC industry is familiar with sustainability goals related to energy efficiency, but holistic discussions related to material goals across the entire team are still rare. Large strides have been made in interior product disclosure, but much less so for building envelope, MEP  and lighting systems. Without transparency our ability to quantitatively convey the magnitude of decisions made across the project team, and track progress as the design progresses, is limited.

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