New Ways of Working (New WOW) honors Dr. Judith Heerwagen

Dr. Judith Heerwagen is an environmental psychologist whose research and writing have focused on social impacts of sustainable design, workplace performance and behavioral change. She currently serves as Program Expert in the Office of Federal High Performance Green Builldings for the U.S. General Services Administration.

In recognition and appreciation of her contributions in workplace research, New Ways of Working (New WOW), an organization dedicated to examining the changing nature of work in a distributed world, has awarded Dr. Heerwagen an honorary fellowship for the 2011 calendar year.

Over the past decade, Dr. Heerwagen ran her own research and consulting business in Seattle. Previously, she was a research faculty member at the University of Washington, Department of Architecture, and a staff scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. At both the University of Washington and PNNL, her research focused on sustainable architecture and the occupant experience in buildings. She has lectured widely on the human factors of sustainable design, workplace productivity, and the impacts of physical space on emotional, social and cognitive functioning. In 2005, she was named Environmental Champion by ASID. Dr. Heerwagen has been a member of the US Green Building Council since 2000 and currently serves as the vice chair of the USGBC research committee. She is a co-editor of Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life (Wiley, 2008) and author of numerous papers. She received a PhD in psychology from the University of Washington and a BS in communications from the University of Illinois.

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EnviroCities calls for the Zero Carbon City

During the 2nd day of the EnviroCities conference in United Arab Emirates, "Sustainable Cities: Strategy, Elements and Indicators to Counterbalance Climate Change," was presented by Prof. Mohsen Aboulnaga, Government Strategy & Policy Advisor and main founder of Emirates Green Building Council.

"Creating and designing cities is one of the most complex and sophisticated processes as they ultimately consume most natural resources, an awful amount of energy, and use huge quantities of water as well as produce air pollution and generate waste. These pose a huge risk to our health and environment, and ultimately contribute to climate change; a phenomenon that is of prime global concern," Aboulnaga pointed out.
"Another crucial dimension impacting climate change is the gigantic rise in world population particularly, in urban areas and beyond," he pointed out.

According to the United Nations 2009 report on water shortage, and keeping in mind the world's high energy consumption rates, it is becoming assertive that strategy and policy, and its assessment tools in sustainable national planning should be firmly developed and exploited to put forward appropriate key performance indicators to encounter such great challenges and ensure our cities are sustainable," said Aboulnaga.

"To curb green house gases emissions and reduce its impact on climate change, it is vital to efficiently plan our cities to be sustainable yet, to diligently develop strategy and policies that promote sustainability to the extent these cities are eco-friendly and maintained," he said.

Full article on Creating and Sustaining Eco-friendly Cities

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Greening an Office Tower; An Architect's Advice

The following is excerpted from an article by Dermot Sweeny (Sweeny Sterling Finlayson & Co) in the May 2010 issue of Sustainable Architecture and Building Magazine:

Natural light

There is lots of anecdotal evidence, and some empirical evidence, to support our contention that natural light and views to the outside are critical contributors to stimulation, human comfort and well being. Effective daylight harvesting depends on capitalizing fully on daylight penetration into the space while controlling direct sunlight and glare.

We achieve this by maximizing ceiling heights, arguing successfully with our clients that the best compromise between economy and performance is achieved with a 13ft. floor-to-floor height incorporating 18in. of raised floor, a 10in. slab, and ceiling heights approaching 11ft., with full height glazing for excellent natural light penetration.

ASHRAE has tended to discourage this fully-glazed approach in order to increase insulation levels and reduce solar heat gain or conversely heat loss. This resulted in a reduction of glazed surface from somewhere between 80% and 90% in Mies’ day, to about 40% in the 1990s. What ASHRAE fails to recognize is that over the same period, the relative importance of solar gain through windows has been reduced both by advancements in glazing technology, and by the dramatic increase in internal heat loads noted above.

While it is still important to work on reducing the amount of excess heat in buildings, we believe that the environmental and psychological benefits of natural light far outweigh the disadvantages of any additional solar heat gain. We do, however, work to control heat gain, and the negative effects of glare while maximizing the positive attributes of daylight.

Typically, an external solar shading device at a height of approximately nine feet creates a clerestory and shades the glass curtain wall below. At the same time, an internal light shelf aligned with the exterior solar shade reflects sunlight penetrating the clerestory off the concrete slab and deep into the building. The light shelf is coupled with a roller blind that lowers automatically [while the light shelf rotates upward] in response to solar intensity and potential glare. The blind never comes to the floor so some views are always maintained.

The additional ceiling height enables us to suspend indirect lighting fixtures fitted with T5 or T8 fluorescent lamps. The goal is to achieve even, ambient lighting. Experience has demonstrated that where there is too much variation the natural tendency is to enhance the dark spots by introducing more light. This of course uses more energy and costs more money.

We find that if we can achieve savings by designing for lower overall lighting levels, it is easier to convince clients to invest money in control systems that further improve energy efficiency. Maximizing indirect lighting also dramatically reduces glare which further increases human comfort.

Full article on Converting office towers to green sustainable technology