Durability & Maintainability - Building with 100 Year Products

Historic preservation of buildings is both an interesting and timely topic of discussion in today’s design community. Potomac Valley Brick sponsored an event at the National Building Museum which brought together three great minds to speak on this topic last week. Carl Elefante, FAIA, LEED AP, Principal, Quinn Evans Architects, Rollin Stanley, AICP, Planning Director, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Audrey T. Tepper, Historical Architect, National Park Service all spoke about preserving buildings and communities in the green era.

Sustainable design practices present many challenges for today’s designers. Carl Elefante strongly believes that we can all benefit by enriching our understanding on the opportunities to renew and transform our communities, economy and culture. It is clear that sustainable design is transforming what, where, and how we build. “We have to get back to the way we were. We can design 100 year buildings,” said Elefante. He explained that our most energy efficient buildings were those built prior to 1920. This was when we built communities for people, not cars. This speaker truly engaged the audience in his presentation. “It survived people smarter than you, let it survive you!” Carl Elefante said this about tearing down buildings and walls. He continued to speak about the value in the existing building stock: economic value, cultural value, and environmental value. Elefante also urged the audience to “get into energy efficient retrofits, because this is where our market is headed.” Durability and maintainability is building with 100 year products, not products that last a decade. (As a true brickie, I love this!) He continued to tout about durability and maintainability, building with 100 year products not products that last a decade. And to me, this is simple and makes sense. Elefante closed his presentation with the following slide:

Sustainable Stewardship = Historical Preservation + Sustainable Design
RENEWAL & TRANSFORMATION

Rollin Stanley is passionate about his involvement in planning for urban growth through sustainable design. This was clear through the copious historic sites he discussed with the audience. His talk focused on the future of sustainable design as it relates to new and old buildings, and how historic preservation can lead to economic development. Stanley said that we can all benefit by educating ourselves about the value of preservation. We need to redevelop and design wonderful communities for people to live, work and play. One specific example cited by Stanley in his talk was about the revitalization of the historic city of St. Louis. This remarkable case study has the opportunity to be replicated in other cities. In addition to the economic opportunities presented through historic preservation, there are also many opportunities for tax credits. These tax credits have the potential to stimulate economic growth through the creation of housing and jobs. You can learn more about these programs at the National Park Service website

Audrey T. Tepper, the third and final speaker, discussed the inherent sustainable properties of historic buildings. These structures have a legacy. Historical materials can be very forgiving. Historic preservation means considering repairing, not replacing; retaining the character of the building when updating; and, understanding that new construction or additions to an existing historic structure must be compatible with the building. Tepper proceeded to show numerous examples of historic buildings whose character was completely compromised by the addition of solar “mohawk” panels, exterior insulation encapsulating the existing details and building character, and green roofs that need a haircut. “There should be a historic building under all that eco-bling,” exclaimed Audrey Tepper. Form needs to fit function, and we have to get back to the basics of what is truly sustainable. Tepper ended by stating, “Historic preservation is inherently green, and there is a lot of value to retaining the existing materials in a building.”

Throughout the discussions, the speakers referenced many credible sites. Here is a short list, for a complete list of reliable information click here.

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/tax/ (National Park Service)
http://wbdg.org/ (The Whole Building Design Guide)
http://www.buildingscience.com/ (Building Science Corporation)
http://www.wufi-pro.com/ (WUFI-Software for calculating the coupled heat and moisture transfer in building components)
http://www.nps.gov/prsf/index.htm (National Park Service - Presidio)

One last note! We were thrilled to hear one of the speakers at the event mention Professor Alan Short, MA DipArch RIBA FRSA. Professor Short will be traveling to the National Building Museum on March 31, 2011 to be the keynote speaker for our 2nd Annual BrickStainable Awards Ceremony. We hope to see you there!

Quick Update! Deadline Today!

Don't forget to submit your entry by midnight! All entries must be complete, paid and submitted. You will receive an email confirmation when you pay and when you submit your entry. Winners will be announced on February 15th! Good luck!

BrickStainable Jurors Speak at Greenbuild 2010

I never cease to enjoy Greenbuild. Even as it has expanded, the enthusiasm and breadth of expertise and investigation is enthralling. Those who have been in this field for a while may find many of the educational sessions to be too basic but, if one selects carefully, there is plenty of cutting edge work being presented. Two of the jurors from BrickStainable presented at the conference, as did I.

Vivian Loftness was a part of two sessions. One presented perspectives on the greening of college campuses. How is an institution’s commitment to greening itself manifest and how does it affect student life, academics and job opportunities in a green economy? Another panel that Vivian participated on addressed carbon footprint analysis for single family residences. This was part of the Residential Summit that took place at Greenbuild this year. This session focused on establishing the quantitative value of the carbon embodied (versus operational) in the single family house. This allows the design, including materials and systems selection, to better meet sustainability goals and more fully evaluate the life cycle impact of the project.

Bill Browning participated in a panel entitled “Mannahatta & The Mtigwaaki: Learning from Ecological and Indigenous History To Remake Our Cities.” Eric Sanderson’s book, “Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City” is a fascinating look at how the development of a City like New York has been affected by its natural history. Bill discussed a project of his own that was informed by this research and how that project has been able to take advantage of the discovery that is located on top of an historic, but long ago buried stream.

I participated in a panel discussion of two community health clinics that have achieved LEED NC Gold and LEED CI Platinum certifications. Serving Baltimore City’s homeless population and a distressed urban community, these LEED certified buildings contribute to the awareness of environmental health in these frequently marginalized communities.

There were many other fascinating sessions and over 1,000 exhibitors this year! The Brickstainable team has been actively involved and we hope to be able to present the contributions of BrickStainable to the sustainability discussion next year. Keep an eye on us and the great work of our competitors!

Congratulations!

Like BrickStainable, other pro-brick organizations around the globe are honoring the best thinking in masonry this year.

The United Kingdom’s Brick Development Association, Think Brick Initiative announced its Brick Awards Winners. Think Brick Australia also handed out its 2010 About Face Design and Horbury Hunt Awards. It’s a real treat to peruse the entries and what designers around the world are doing both in theory and in real life. The winning designs are stunning examples of the innovation, functionality and beauty that comes with using brick.

A big BrickStainable Congratulations to all of this year’s winners!

Reflections from a BrickStainable Competition Winner

“It seems really amazing that you have already launched the second BrickStainable Competition bringing back to us all the exciting memories from last year. Since we left Washington, DC we had the best impressions about the whole experience you have offered us and we felt the stimulus of being exposed to such a great amount of thinkers from different disciplines. We consider your competition the starting point for a very particular research that deals with the component of construction as its basic module. In this way we can explore more “bottom-up” systems of producing space, rather than traditional “top-down” methodologies. Inserting context to these systems like sustainability and bioclimatic design turned out to be really intriguing to us.

Once more we thank you for opening this competition to the design community, pushing our research to a level that promotes contemporary design and finds applications to the latest tendencies of architecture.

In this frame we decided to take our ideas to another level and felt confident enough to promote our ideas back to Europe. Through this process our winning entry has been selected with 46 more in its category, among 256 international entries, to participate in the 22nd biennial of industrial design in Ljubljana, best known from its acronym BIO. BIO is one of the few major international exhibitions that have a tradition of more than 45 years of pushing the envelope in contemporary design.” – Flora Bougiatioti, Maria Eftychi & Aimlios Michael, Cyprus

Congratulations to Flora, Maria & Aimlios, Technical Design winners from the 2009 BrickStainable Design Competition. More detail about the BIO exhibition is available at: http://www.bio.si/

Can a Building Really be Comfortable with no A/C?

Alan Short, the principal of Short & Associates, chartered architects, and professor of architecture at Cambridge University will prove its possible! He’s coming to Washington, DC to speak about his work at BrickStainable’s Awards Ceremony in March.

Short designs research level sustainable public buildings for a wide variety of activities in the United Kingdom and abroad. Recently, his firm designed the downdraft-cooled School of Slavonic and East European Studies in Bloomsbury, the mixed mode Judson College Academic Centre in Chicago, the innovative Queens Building, De Montfort University in Leicester as well as his first building in Beijing (shown) which is currently underway. Short & Associates is extremely interested in extending its fundamental green design approach to creating sustainable buildings for healthcare facilities. The firm publishes all of its research and the design and construction process from start to finish for each building.

Short is a big proponent of “heavy construction.” At BrickStainable, he’ll present a series of brick masonry buildings from different climates and describe how they were designed to stay comfortable despite temperature fluctuations using much less energy than expected.

BrickStainable’s Awards Ceremony will be held at the National Building Museum March 31, 2011. Tickets are available at www.BrickStainable.com.

10,000 years after humans leave the earth, what will still be standing?

Masonry wins again! The History Channel’s TV show, Life After Humans says it would be the Washington Monument in Washington, DC. The Washington Monument is not only a masonry structure, but one of the tallest masonry structures in the world (we’d say THE tallest, but there seems to be some debate on that). It’s 555 feet, 5 inches (169.29 meters) tall. While is made out of marble and we’re partial to brick, we’re still pretty excited that long after the U.S. Capitol has crumbled and The Declaration of Independence has disintegrated, it will be around. Check out the video!

Masonry Materials Comprise 11 of 13 Wonders of the World!

Just out of curiosity, I thought I would find out what the Seven Wonders of the World were and of what materials they were made. Do you know? There are actually Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, of which only the Pyramids at Giza still exist, and a New Seven Wonders of the World, selected from sites and structures still in existence. Between the two lists, the Pyramids at Giza were on both so, two times seven only yields thirteen. Interestingly, of the thirteen structures, all were masonry except for two, the Colossus of Rhodes (from the original seven), which is reputed to have been Bronze, and Christ the Redeemer in Brazil (of the new seven) which is concrete. Of the ancient wonders, only one remains standing, the Pyramids at Giza. Except for the two non-masonry structures mentioned, all of the others are built of stone or brick. The two brick new wonders are the Great Wall of China and the Colosseum in Rome.

The Great Wall, except for the “guard houses” is primarily an elevated road to keep out the enemy and move troops and military supplies. Though occupant comfort was not a primary consideration, durability was. And, endure it has. Even through its degradation, many of the bricks remained. Now, having received its second, at least, restoration, the Great Wall continues to impress as much by virtue of the mere chutzpah that it took to construct it as by its technical accomplishment.

The Colosseum, though an open structure, was built to provide a modicum of human comfort while attending gladiatorial exhibitions. There has been much speculation about the canvas awnings at the upper level that provided shelter from the sun but, these no longer exist. When you are there today, the shade of the arched concourses and the coolness of the brick still provide considerable relief from the Italian sun.

Here are the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the New 7 Wonders of the World.

7 Wonders of the Ancient World
Pyramids at Giza
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Temple of Artemis
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
Colossus of Rhodes
Lighthouse at Alexandria

New 7 Wonders of the World
Pyramids at Giza
Machu Picchu
Chichen Itza
The Colosseum
Great Wall of China
Taj Mahal
Christ the Redeemer

There were many other contenders when the New list of Wonders of the World was created. Selected for features such as beauty and cultural value, it is notable that the majority of them are masonry structures.

15,500,000 brick … Sustainable … A Hundred Plus Year History!

The National Building Museum in Washington, DC (USA) is a showcase example of how the stack effect of masonry units can achieve natural ventilation and infiltration. Originally the Pension Building, the National Building Museum was designed to provide natural air-conditioning and light for its employees. Through the use of windows and air vents in the exterior walls of the building a ventilation system was created where hot air escaped through the skylights in the roof. The upward flow of air through the large central atrium would draw in fresh air through the exterior wall openings. The significance of brick construction cannot be overstated. The thermal lag created by the brick bearing walls helps to keep the interior of the building cool during the hot Washington, DC summers. And, the combination of the thermal lag and stack effect is how the National Building Museum maintained a comfortable interior environment prior to the installation of air conditioning.

These same concepts--Thermal Lag and Stack Effect are two of the six core concepts identified in the 2009 BrickStainable Design Competition entries. Check out all six design techniques utilizing brick to achieve sustainability goals.

Just this fall, Potomac Valley Brick (PVB) represented the brick and masonry industry by participating in the Festival of the Building Arts event hosted at the National Building Museum. PVB’s team partnered with United Masonry, a local mason contractor, to lead the bricklaying demonstration. This event was attended by thousands of visitors of all ages. A good time was had by all. Ellen Jacknain, coordinator of the Festival of the Building Arts noted, “As always, bricklaying was one of our most popular activities. Thank you so much to (Potomac Valley Brick) Dave and all of the workers for their expertise and patience in working with all the young visitors. The event’s general atmosphere of learning and fun was remarkable – due in large part to the enthusiasm of demonstrators like you.”

And we’ll be back at the National Building Museum in March. It will be the venue for the 2nd Annual BrickStainble Awards Celebration for the second year in a row. We can’t wait to return to this fabulous brick structure for another night of sustainability celebration!

What’s your favorite feature of the National Building Museum?

BrickStainable Presents at DC Convention, Summer 2010!

This past summer we were privileged enough to be invited back for the second time to present at the annual Washington, DC AIA hosted event, Design DC.

BrickStainable, in its 2nd year, decided an interactive panel discussion would be the best format to communicate our message and engage our supporters. The dynamic group included Potomac Valley Brick president, Alan Richardson, BrickStainable consultants, Peter Doo and Robert Busler (moderator), and a winner from BrickStainable 2009, Eric Haskins. (Eric joined us all the way from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Only a few short months after Alan flew to New Mexico to talk with Eric about his patent-pending idea, involving brick, of course! Check out our previous blog post on this topic.)

The 90 minute, 1.5 AIA/CEU & USGBC/ GBCI certified presentation was attended by a crowd of architects, students, and 2009 BrickStainable sponsors. We captured some of the highlights from this panel discussion for you. Enjoy the video.

Feel free to check out the pictures from Design DC on Flickr.

The BrickStainable Design Competition has the Whole Earth Thinking Brick!

With two and half months from the launch and under two months left to register, the 2nd Annual BrickStainable Design Competition has spread from Washington, DC across the globe! The interest from Vietnam, Poland, the United Kingdom, Canada, Iran and China is impressive, with over 80 other countries also tracking the most recent updates.

We have captured the attention from over 100 registrants at this point, primarily architects and students, and 10 of the 2009 returning teams are going to take a second stab at the BrickStainable challenge this year.

Registrants have the opportunity to win thousands of dollars in prizes and travel to Washington, DC. Register for the 2nd Annual BrickStainable Design Competition Today!

6 WEEKS UNTIL REGISTRATION CLOSES ON NOVEMBER 15th!

Thank You for Helping Move BrickStainable and the Industry Forward!

Industry leaders Belden Brick, Boral Bricks, Carolina Ceramics, Cloud Ceramics, Continental Brick, Essroc Italcementi Group, Hanson Brick, Hyload, Lehigh Cement, Mortar Net, Owens-Corning, Palmetto Brick, Redland Brick and Triangle Brick are supporting the 2^nd Annual BrickStainable Design Competition. Their involvement and financial commitment help us continue to expand our educational outreach to a larger audience.

Sponsoring BrickStainable increases the partners’ visibility to a regional, national, and international audience; supports business development and networking opportunities; and, continues to promote inherently sustainable materials that can work together through integrative design to achieve energy efficient and environmentally conscious projects.

“I was fortunate enough to attend the first awards celebration for BrickStainable. I was impressed with [the event] PVB put together, and the way they promoted our product. To realize the magnitude of what they did to bring people together from all over the world for the initial competition was impressive. I only see this as a springboard to the future for promoting brick in not only the DC and Baltimore markets, but across the country [US].” – Bill Masters, Boral Bricks (1^st Annual Premier Sponsor)

Thank you very, very much to our contributing sponsors!

We will continue to challenge the design community, stimulate integrative and innovative thinking, and encourage designers to think critically about the materials they use in the creation of the building envelope.

Please give these businesses your support. And, if you are interested in learning how to become a sponsor yourself, please visit, http://www.brickstainable.com/sponsorships/become-a-sponsor.html or email SponsorBrickStainable@gmail.com.

Integrated Design--A Path to Utopia?

Within the arena of sustainability, the term “integrated design” is now being bandied about like the term “green” has been. If everyone is green and integrated, as an increasing number of businesses and products claim to be, we should be in Utopia by now. Are we there yet?

Not quite.

So, what do these terms really mean and what do we seek to achieve by striving to integrate the design of our products and places to be green? It is really a self preservationist point of view. The well known definition of sustainability is “…meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Historically, human development has occurred by exercising our dominion over nature. People were few and nature was abundant. The pace of life was slower. Now, in the frenzy of a technological explosion and an expanding and increasingly affluent population whose consumption rate is growing; the loss of natural lands, increased scarcity of resources, degradation of our water supplies and changes in our climate are pressing our collective comfort zone. That is to say that these impacts are affecting the daily lives of people all over the planet. Many, worldwide, seek to live within a smaller environmental footprint to preserve a quality of life for future generations and, some would say, the planet itself.

We increasingly sense the interdependency of our actions. What we purchase and consume, where we live, what we throw away, our national security, our public health and, not least of all, the quality of our environment are all linked. While more than 50% of the world’s population now lives in cities, we seek to live increasingly “in harmony with nature” without knowing exactly what that means. Ironically, indigenous people who have lived in harmony with nature for centuries are considered “uncivilized.”

So, here we are, civilized people seeking to design our environments and products in a manner more integrated with nature, more holistic, more “green.” The term “integrated design” requires an understanding that the thing we are making is part of an interdependent system. If it is a product, there are material and energy flows in every aspect of its material acquisition, manufacturing, advertising, packaging, distribution, sales, obsolescence and recycling. In the case of architecture, the building or development engages its place environmentally, socially and economically.

Even city blocks that are fully developed from property line to property line are part of a watershed and, possibly, a migratory path. It has water and energy income and out flows. Though it may not function as it once did as a natural environment, we have to ask ourselves whether it could be restored to do so. How do I take advantage of the climatic cycles? What is the potential energy income? What do I do with rainwater that falls here? What do I do with the waste streams that are created by this development? What would nature do?

How will this project function economically, not only individually but in relation to its community? How does it support the social network of the community within which it resides? Addressing these issues integratively is a new challenge to architects and planners. Integrating a design is not only about integrating building systems but it is also about understanding and integrating the building with its place.

Designing a project that addresses these questions is very different than designing a project that seeks to achieve aesthetic, economic and compliance goals. The integrated approach is much richer, more rewarding, more “green”.

Jury Selection Complete!

Four of sustainability’s top minds have agreed to BrickStainable Jury Duty. Vivian Loftness of Carnegie Mellon, Martin Vachon of AXIM Concrete Technologies, Bill Browning of Terrapin Bright Green, and Anna Dyson of Center for Architecture Science and Ecology will judge the entries in this year’s competition.


Loftness and Vachon are returning jurors and Browning was last year’s Award Ceremony Keynote. Anna Dyson brings new perspective to the competition. Here’s a little more about our jurors. You can read their full bios on the BrickStainable web site.

Vivian Loftness is an internationally renowned researcher, author and educator with over 30 years of focus on environmental design and sustainability, advanced building systems and systems integration, climate and regionalism in architecture, as well as design for performance in the workplace of the future. She has served on seven National Academy of Science panels and has given Congressional testimonies on sustainable design. Loftness is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

In his position at AXIM in the United States, a subsidiary of ESSROC-Italcementi Group, Martin Vachon promotes the use of Self Consolidating Concrete (SCC) in the U.S. and is a pioneer in this field. He has played a significant role in the development of the Interim Guidelines for the use of SCC by the Precast Concrete. Vachon has been involved in several R&D projects, including concrete maturity, surface quality characteristics of architectural concrete, electrical conductivity and hydration kinetics of cement, tribology and pumpability of concrete.

Bill Browning is one of the green building and real estate industry’s foremost thinkers and advocates for sustainable design solutions in business, government, and civil society. He has lent his to expertise Fortune 500 companies, universities, non-profit organizations, the U.S. military, and foreign governments. He founded Green Development Services at Rocky Mountain Institute, an entrepreneurial, non-profit “think and do tank” whose work advances energy-efficient and environmentally-responsive design. Browning was a founding member of the USGBC’s Board of Directors, and still serves on its Governance Board.

Anna Helen Dyson is the director of the Center of Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE), an entity spanning several institutional collaborators, and co-hosted by Skidmore Owings and Merrill and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Its mission is to create an exceptional context for the innovation of high performing building technologies by uniting multiple interests across the building disciplines in order to support common interests for innovation. Dyson is currently directing interdisciplinary research to develop building systems that integrate applications of emerging technology from diverse research fields.

We thank them for their commitment to BrickStainable and hope we won’t have to sequester them during their service!

What a Week at DesignDC!

We were thrilled to meet all the visitors in our booth, as well as the attendees in our presentation – over 50 guests! Our panel discussion included PVB’s president, Alan Richardson, BrickStainable consultants, Peter Doo and Rob Busler (moderator), and 2009 BrickStainable competition winner, Eric Haskins. Eric flew all the way from Albuquerque, NM to Washington, DC to join us.

There was much discussion about the design concepts submitted in last year’s competition, and the new, yet age-old, sustainable applications for brick. Peter and Rob conveyed a clear message about the USGBC LEED rating system, “…design shouldn’t be about trying to achieve LEED points. If you design well, you will achieve a sustainable and durable project. Sustainability is sophisticated. You should be choosing the right products for their performance, not because of the points you can obtain.” (Well said Peter and Rob!)

We also had many winners of various prizes in our booth including a 32 GB i-pad and case, tickets to our Awards Ceremony, free entrance to the BrickStainable Design Competition, and travel to the new Essroc cement plant (a four AIA/CEU opportunity)!

Design DC was the formal launch of the new BrickStainable Concepts in Construction – Sustainable Brick Cards. Hundreds of copies were distributed in our booth and at the presentation. Contact your PVB design partner today to collect your copy!

Sneak Peek: DesignDC Next Week!

Potomac Valley Brick is psyched for this year’s DesignDC Conference next Tuesday-Thursday! We hope you’ll stop by Booth #310 to discuss sustainable design and masonry construction and the 2nd Annual BrickStainable Design Competition with us. We’ll also give you a spin on the prize wheel for your chance at ten different prizes including tickets to the BrickStainable Awards Ceremony at the National Building Museum, free BrickStainable Design Competition registration, a trip to a Cement Plant (AIA/CEU opportunity), and more! Also, collect your set of new BrickStainable Concept Cards. Limited quantity available!

Also, join Alan Richardson, Peter Doo, Eric Haskins (2009 BrickStainable Winner) and Rob Busler in Room 147B for their presentation “BrickStainable, Designing with Brick to Save Energy–Results of the Competition” on Thursday, August 5th, 10:15am–11:45am -1.5 AIA/CEU (HSW/SD) . The panel will review BrickStainable-2009. Why did we do it? What did we learn? What’s new for the 2nd Annual BrickStainable Design Competition? How has this exploration changed the people involved from sponsor to contestant? You’ll gain insight into sustainability and the role masonry plays as well as get inspiration for your entry in this year’s competition.

Make sure you’re there Wednesday, August 4th after lunch for the raffle where you can win our 32GB ipad as a prize!

DesignDC Information:
August 3-5, 2010
Walter Washington Convention Center
Washington, DC

Contact PVB at info@PVBrick.com for your free VIP ticket to the exhibit hall (a $50 value!). Limited quantity available!

It’s going to be a packed week and we’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Your Mission: Create Net-Zero Building in Downtown Baltimore Location

The 2nd Annual BrickStainable competition assignment has been released. View all of the details for this year’s challenge. BrickStainable encourages anyone interested—architects, engineers, material scientists, landscape architects, ecologists and students—to enter.

Entrants can choose from two options—

• INTEGRATED BUILDING DESIGN COMPETITION: The assignment’s building will be set in an urban location. Like last year, the competition seeks integrative design solutions that exploit the thermal qualities of brick masonry construction to create a passively heated and cooled building. The target: Net Zero.

• TECHNICAL DESIGN COMPETITION: Design a single element of a building that provides a sustainable solution to real-world environmental challenges.
Jurors will look for evidence of the project’s performance and encourage the use of BIM, energy, solar and day light modeling software.

Entrants can win a $10,000 grand prize or $7,500 grand prize in the Building Design and Technical Design categories, respectively. Plus, winners will be flown to Washington, DC for the awards celebration on March 31, 2011 at the National Building Museum.

The registration deadline is November 15th and entries are due by December 15th. All of the project specifics and competition details can be found at www.BrickStainable.com.

The results from the first competition blew us away. We can’t wait to see what innovative ideas you have in store this year. Register today to start designing your net-zero building!

Competition Launch Just Around the Corner!

We are about to launch the 2nd Annual BrickStainable International Design Competition and the competition team has been busy identifying a site and drafting a design brief for the building challenge. The goal, once again, is net-zero. Discovery and re-discovery are concepts that keep turning up when we talk about the competition because this challenge is partly about integrating brick with other materials and technologies that are of the present and about the future; discovery, and partly about understanding brick’s innate physical characteristics and behaviors; re-discovery. Design integration and innovation are the means by which a 10,000 year old material of the earth finds new expression in an increasingly technologically driven world.

We are very excited about this year’s competition for which we have selected an urban site in the City of Baltimore. We have nearly completed the selection of our jury panel and, once again, we have an intriguing group of thought leaders participating in the selection of this year’s winners. The award ceremony will be at the National Building Museum and prizes include cash and travel to the awards program.

We are preparing for our official launch on or about July 15th with a local launch celebration and talk delivered at DesignDC on August 5th, 2010. The presentation will be available on the BrickStainable website. Keep an eye on our website and this blog. The launch is just around the corner!

A Brick That Powers Your Building?

It sounds far-fetched, but it could be a real possibility in the future and it came out of the BrickStainable Design Competition. Last post I told you about my trip to New Mexico to meet with one of last year’s winners, Eric Haskins to discuss an idea he had. Well now I can talk about it because his idea for photovoltaic brick is patent-pending. Several entries in the BrickStainable competition utilized this concept—marrying clay brick with new photovoltaic technology—and Eric is taking it to the next level. Obviously, this idea is in its infancy—much research is still needed to figure out exactly how it could and would be used on the exterior and link to the building’s systems on the interior. Still, through this competition, architects interested in product development are working on the innovative ideas they explored in theory in their entries, in the real world. BrickStainable could lead to energy efficient systems far beyond anything we imagined when we began this competition and to me there’s nothing more exciting!

Escaping the Heat on a Hot Summer Day

It was a hot and humid day today in Washington, DC, almost 100º with 40% humidity. We decided to escape the city’s summer heat by retreating to a presentation by BrickStainable’s architecture and sustainability consultant, Peter Doo. The comfort and cooling sensation we felt when we first entered the National Building Museum was undeniably refreshing. Over 15 million bricks contribute to the buildings thermal mass and were integral in the construction plans to promote air circulation before the time of mechanical heating and cooling systems.

We sat amongst a crowd of at least 50 architects and designers as Peter talked about how the construction materials we choose affect the performance of a building. He continued, “After industrialization we moved towards centralized air-conditioning and our architectural expressions were not performance based.” As the green movement progresses, it is likely designers will re-think the materials they choose and their building envelopes. There will be a transformation in design; and sustainability – which is not a fad – will have a stylistic approach.

Brick is nature’s oldest building block. Designs by Louis Kahn and Frank Lloyd Wright will always be remembered for their integration of masonry. Peter not only credited the aforementioned architects, but also the designers (both winners and entrants) from BrickStainable 2009. The sustainable applications for masonry are abundant!

Sensory, memory… hot summer days, cool brick buildings. Now that’s refreshing!

Music Legend MADONNA lays first brick in “Self-Sustaining Village”

When we saw this article we just couldn’t pass up sharing it with our fellow fans of brick. From the iconic “American Girl,” to “Evita” in Buenos Aires, most recently spotted in Malawi – Madonna is not only a world music idol, but also an advocate for sustainable design solutions! She tours the world for music, film and promotion of energy efficient communities.

She recently visited Malawi with her two daughters Mercy James and Lourdes to lay the first brick in a $15 million dollar project. Inscriptions on brick including phrases such as, “Dare to Dream” will reside at the project site. Madonna has donated millions of her own money to the country and the school.

Madonna supports "self-sustaining villages" BUILT WITH BRICK to enhance the educational opportunities for those less fortunate. Through these efforts, it is apparent Madonna is no “Beautiful Stranger” to sustainable design.

It is no surprise to us The Material Girl’s sustainable material of choice is BRICK.

Connections Made at BrickStainable Lead to Cross Country Travel

While mingling with the winners of BrickStainable at the awards ceremony, I heard “Let me know when you’re in town and I’ll show you around”. Well, since then, I have. I’ve taken trips to meet with two of the winners, tour their areas and learn more about what they’re doing now and how BrickStainable impacted them.

The first trip was to see Rizal Muslimin at MIT. I toured four buildings including the new Frank Geary building where I learned how he uses geometric designs to create unique exteriors that impact the functionality of the interior and sustainability of the building as a whole. Plus, it didn’t hurt that the building is made of brick!

Now in his second year of the doctoral program, Rizal found MIT attractive because of its interdisciplinary approach to teaching; combining architecture, fabrics and other materials to invent new and better things. BrickStainable sparked his interest in a similar way—it crossed boundaries and opened up the thought process for using clay brick in other disciplines.

My second trip was to Albuquerque, New Mexico to meet with Eric Haskins. Eric had an idea to discuss and is working on a patent, so it’s top secret for now! We also discussed BrickStainable and similar to Rizal, Eric appreciated the creativity that the competition spurred. He loved that it allowed participants the opportunity to look at the use of clay brick in specific projects for use in energy efficiency.

On my tour of Albuquerque I noticed that the brick buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries are still standing and still as beautiful as when they were first built, but for some reason, today’s architects have abandoned brick in favor of other materials. I certainly hope this shift isn’t permanent because after my conversations with these two competition winners I’m more confident than ever that the applications for clay brick as a “green” building material are abundant.