News
Importance of Including Engineers from the Beginning
[INDUSTRY NEWS]
No one likes being left out of the party. But that’s often what happens to consulting engineers on building projects. More often than not, last minute calls from the clients are already too late. The opportunity to improve the building has been lost; had input been provided in the beginning of the process than architects could design the buildings differently.
For decades, anyone embarking on large building projects has asked an architect first to come up with the preliminary design. While it’s possible that the structural engineer will be brought in early, the mechanical and electrical engineers – the ones who are putting in the unseen infrastructure, the pipes and conduits, boilers and chillers all the infrastructure that makes the indoor environment conformable – will not be asked for their input until the form of the building is decided. This needs to change and developers need to understand what the integrated design process is and how they should involve everybody at first.
WHAT IS AN “INTEGRATED” DESIGN PROCESS?
As more developers want their buildings certified through programs like LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), they are adopting the integrated design process. Ideally, this approach means that the full complement of architect, engineers, as well as the owner and the contractor, work together on the project from the outset. In the hands of this multi-disciplinary team, the building is designed holistically. All the components work together and complement each other. The heating and cooling system, for example, are selected and sized to work in concert with the building’s spatial organization – the architecture. The structure, roof and wall materials, the number and size of openings, etc. all have an impact on how much energy the bui9lding needs. So the designers collaborate and make decisions together, sharing their expertise.
Without such collaboration at the beginning of a project an engineer faces difficulties in trying to make the building engineering systems work at their optimum level. For example, once the architectural plans are decided, the mechanical engineers may be forced to locate a chiller in the bright sun, or in a space that is too enclosed. Or they may have to integrate systems that they know are not really compatible.
In comparison, a building designed by an integrated team has much more careful and precise evolution. Mark Lucuik, P.Eng, chairman of the Canada Green Council LEED management committee, explains: “It basically requires the whole design team. It’s the architect sitting down with the mechanical, electrical, structure and civil engineers, and other specialists and stake holders – everyone around the table. It involves brainstorming over a series of weeks or months and testing different variables then coming back with the results, changing the design and testing a new set of variables.”
Naturally, this refining process takes extra time. And it can be expensive for the owner or architect to pay a full team of consultants to attend early meetings. Nonetheless, organizations such as the Canada Green Building Council, Natural Resources Canada, and CMHC advocate integrated design, saying that the approach means that ultimately the building will operate more efficiently and provide a better environment.
WHY ARE ENGINEERS NOT AT THE TABLE?
Budgets are one of the big obstacles to owners choosing an integrated design team approach. However, clients that value the sustainability objective of a project will need to understand the need for it and alter their mind sets to pay for the special skills that engineers proficient in green design possess.
PERSONAL RELATIONS
What might also stand in the way of owners and architects using an IDCP is that in can create an uneasy situation among the players. Traditionally architects are the ones that bring in the engineer and thus most engineers will not over advise in the presence of the party that hired them. However, in an integrated approach, the engineer will be hired on directly from the developer and thus has a bigger say in the large picture. However, for any of this to happen, engineers need to be invited.
Sustainable design has the potential to empower engineers, giving them an influence over the design that they’ve never had before. Sustainable design is no just about materials or ordering new equipment, it requires a delicate balance of myriad physical forces that only engineers can calculate, analyze and manage. It’s for that reason that green design requires an integrated design process with engineers at the table from the beginning.
By Bronwen Parson
Canadian Consulting Engineer – March/April 2010
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At CDML we believe in taking the Integrated Design Process one step further and practice our revised model of the Integrated Design & Construction Process (IDCP), thereby providing the missing link that will create a seamless, effective, and efficient design process.
During the design phase, a multitude of solid sustainable designs are generated. However, as history would show, designs can become extremely complicated to implement and initial goals may be lost. By integrating the design and construction processes, we are able to provide your project a fixed scope and budget, but most importantly, a single point of accountability from design to completion. Rest assured that our team will diligently follow through to ensure your design intentions become a built reality.
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Archive Date: 05/06/2010