World Tour of Heavy “Masonry” Construction Projects

Look at the countless architectural examples from history, and then study the truly riveting examples of heavy masonry construction from today. It’s this simple: Designing with brick can save energy and reduce fluctuating interior temperatures. 1st Image: The Queens Building @ De Montfort University)

Professor Alan Short MA DipArch RIBA FRSA (Professor of Architecture at the University of Cambridge and Chairman Short & Associates Architecture) delivered a fantastic keynote address at the 2nd Annual BrickStainable Awards Ceremony. An inspiring talk about the historical influences and styles of architecture, bio-climatic design strategies and building performance, and basic design concepts including: thermal mass, stack effect, and orientation were also discussed.

Brick allows you an unbelievable amount of design flexibility in color, size, pattern, shape, detail, and adaptability. It not only promises hundreds of years of durability, but it is manufactured from abundant, organic materials that are typically locally sourced.



Final thought from Professor Short:
“…to return to this chart (Image 2), there is an order of magnitude saving in energy and cost available through careful design. Only at this point should renewable energy technologies be introduced to deliver the residual and potentially much reduced energy requirement for comfort. Don’t apply gadgets to the top bar!”

Click here to download the entire keynote address.


Drawing and advice from Georgia Short, Age 7.

BrickStainable Offsets Carbon From Its Awards Program

BrickStainable will be offsetting the carbon emissions from its awards program this year. On March 31st, 2011, Potomac Valley Brick will host its Second Annual BrickStainable Awards Program. As in the first awards celebration, winners are being flown to Washington, DC, from their home cities and countries to participate in the awards celebration.

For the purpose of estimating the carbon impact, PVB has calculated the carbon consequences of all flights for winners and guests, hotel stays based upon the block reservation, preparation of the awards dinner and use of the National Building Museum for the evening. Transportation of local guests to and from the awards venue has been estimated at twenty-five miles per attendee. This estimate is averaged from those who will walk or take transit from locations within the City and those who may be driving from distances farther away. Based upon an estimated attendance of 200, the carbon consequence of the Second Annual BrickStainable Awards program is 24 tons of carbon.

As a supporter of BrickStainable, Doo Consulting LLC is purchasing the carbon offsets for the awards program. These are being purchased from the Enterprise Green Communities Carbon Offset Fund. Enterprise’s Green Communities Offset Fund offers the opportunity to offset carbon emissions caused by your conference or meeting by helping low-income families live in green affordable homes. As a building industry competition, BrickStainable sought to find an industry related offset fund. Supporting the creation of green communities and the construction of green affordable housing is consistent with the mission of BrickStainable and its sponsors.

Individuals can offset carbon emissions caused by your corporation or organization, or you and your family's daily activities through this fund as well. To check out the Carbon Calculator, click here.

Top Ten Reasons to Attend the BrickStainable Awards Ceremony!

10.

Get an upclose look at inspiring designs and advancements in sustainable design!

9.

Best networking opportunity of 2011 with the A/E/C community!

8.

Keynote speaker, Cambridge University Professor Alan Short will travel from the UK to speak at the program!

7.

Meet the winning teams from across the globe!

6.

Talk to the esteemed panel of jurors!

5.

Mingle with the BrickStainable visionaries Alan Richardson, Peter Doo & Rob Busler!

4.

Enjoy the National Building Museum (one of the most magnificent masonry structures in the world – 15 million bricks – 124 years old)!

3.

Fantastic cocktail reception, delicious dinner & drinks!

2.

Meet our incredible partners who helped us make BrickStainable possible!

1.

Spend an evening in Washington, DC and enjoy all the city has to offer!

Due to the nature of this event, limited tickets will be sold. We hope you will join us!
Click here for ticket info.

Winners Announced!

The jury deliberation was truly an exciting day for the entire BrickStainable team. We met at the National Building Museum in the Pension Commissioner’s Suite to review entries in the Integrated Building Design and Technical Design categories.

The 2nd Annual BrickStainable Design Competition captured the attention of a total of 356 registrants! That number represented 62 different countries. When registration closed in December of 2010, we had 60 submissions from 21 countries.

Vivian Loftness, Bill Browning, Anna Dyson and Martin Vachon decided on seven winners this year. We will honor all of our winners at the Awards Ceremony on March 31, 2011.

We welcome all followers of the competition to preview the winning entries on our website.

We also invite you to join us for the grand evening at the National Building Museum on March 31st where you will have the opportunity to meet and celebrate with our winners!

CONGRATULATIONS WINNERS!

Connection with the Natural World

Bill Browning, Founder of Terrapin Bright Green, was the keynote speaker at the 1st Annual BrickStainable Design Competition, and is a juror for the 2nd Competition.

Bill is one of the green building and real estate industry’s foremost thinkers and strategists. His areas of research and expertise include: biophilic design, the physiological and psychological benefits of building with nature and living systems; biomimicry, how nature evokes these benefits and inspires design; and, deep ecological history and metrics of various locations.

Browning’s most recent interest includes the Mannahatta project. This study focuses on the reconstruction and remapping of how Manhattan looked in 1609. Bill is interested in the carbon balance, original topography, and natural ecosystems prior to development.

It is truly fascinating to check out Manhattan on Google Earth and use the historical time tool to see the development of this New York City borough over just the past few decades.

- To see it for yourself, visit http://welikia.org/explore/mannahatta-map/

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!

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?