Improving Performance Through Better Collaboration

As we’ve just seen, implementing PBD just for the architects within a firm can already provide significant results. Of course, on a building project of any size, architects also need to work with mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineers as key members of the design team. In order to be effective, all of these project team members need to be able to participate in and respond to different performance-based design strategies, whether leading the process or assisting in it. That means the reporting of results from analyzing different design options, solutions, and equipment choices needs to be readily available to all. In this regard, some of the best PBD software offers a shared environment for architects and engineers to use collaboratively. It provides different access points to the platform for different user types, recognizing that, for example, architects have different needs and a different level of knowledge about certain aspects compared to building engineers, and vice versa. Enabling this type of collaboration allows every stakeholder to participate in the PBD process in a way that suits his or her knowledge level and workflow.

Using the Cloud for Collaboration

Most of us are aware that the cloud is simply a remote, central computer platform that is accessible via the Internet by multiple people regardless of their geographic location. This makes it very easy to share information with others whether for personal or professional uses. Not surprisingly, software for general building design and construction is making more and more use of the cloud for information sharing, collaboration, and data storage. Especially when using it for analysis, there is another key advantage of cloud computing too, namely speed, since it is often possible to run computer calculations in the cloud in a fraction of the time it would take to run on a local office computer.

In the case of PBD applied to cloud computing, the main benefit is not so much about sharing information files, but about directly collaborating on the same project without everyone having to build their own model. By creating a central place where a 3-D computer model of the building resides linked to performance-based design software, all members of the design team can work together regardless of their office location. Hence, everyone is able to participate in the analysis on the same model and access the same performance information.

In practice, performance-based design collaboration using the cloud can take many forms. It can enable architects to connect a 3-D BIM model with the PBD program while still allowing for additional architectural detail and information to be added. For mechanical and electrical engineers, it means that they can do their work based on the latest version of an architect-generated BIM file and provide feedback to the architects on how to optimize the interface between the energy-conserving features of the building construction and the energy-consuming systems within it. As different design and performance strategies are considered, cloud-based PBD collaboration allows for each strategy to be shared for all to see, assess, analyze, and provide input on how to improve the performance or other aspects of the design. Based on all of this, design firms and project teams are discovering that the use of the cloud for PBD supports a fully collaborative approach that is incredibly effective in helping to optimize performance, increase computing speed, and involve all team members.

Putting Collaboration to Work

As an example of particularly successful collaboration, we can look at two projects that included Brinjac Engineering as the MEP firm on two project teams for the same client. Brinjac is an award-winning firm with a diverse portfolio of government, institutional, educational, and industrial building projects with approximately 80 professional, technical, and support personnel. Recently, the firm was approached about working on two fire stations in Fairfax County, Virginia. The RFP required substantial analysis during the schematic design phase, including energy simulation, exploration of envelope-related energy-efficiency measures, and life-cycle cost analysis. Performance-based design software was a huge advantage in this case because it not only facilitated Brinjac’s delivery of these requirements quickly and on budget, it also enabled the firm to work closely with the architects and the client throughout the process. “A conventional design process would have had us use a significant portion of our fee in the first phase,” says Philip Wright, who led both fire station project teams at Brinjac. “Performance-based design software allowed us to deliver on the RFP requirements quickly and cost effectively for the firm.”

Work began with envelope optimization which quickly helped them discover what not to do as much as anything else. The real-time analysis capabilities of PBD software allowed the engineers and architects to study envelope-optimization scenarios together. Their aim was to find the most cost-effective strategies for reducing the building’s energy use and associated energy costs. Using ASHRAE 90.1-2010 as a baseline, which is already quite efficient in terms of the building envelope, the team discovered that many traditional energy-efficiency strategies yielded minimal savings, and were ultimately not a good investment. For example, early analysis showed that going beyond an R-40 roof resulted in marginal energy savings, and that the money could be better spent on improved lighting or more efficient mechanical systems. These results allowed the team to avoid costly investments that would have provided little value to the client, and instead prioritize the strategies that offered the biggest savings.

Photo courtesy of Sefaira

A collaboration between the architects, engineers, and client allowed more accurate comparisons between different mechanical systems proposed for two new Fairfax County fire stations.

This collaboration extended to the client too, in this case representatives from Fairfax County Government, who were engaged to explore the impact of various mechanical system options. For instance, a comparison of a variable air volume (VAV) rooftop unit, a constant volume RTU, and a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system was undertaken. The results, and in particular the feedback on energy efficiency and energy costs, were key inputs to the discussion allowing the team to come to a fast decision. “We could quickly modify the analysis to match the county’s typical set-points, operations, and other parameters, and could see the impact on utility costs immediately,” says Wright. “This increased our confidence in the analysis and helped everyone align on the benefits of different solutions.” The result is a focused design with an anticipated 20 percent reduction in energy use from the baseline.

The fire stations are still in design, with construction scheduled for 2017. The integrated design process used has set both projects on a path to a more energy-efficient building for the client, improved collaboration among the project team, and has resulted in a more streamlined, cost-effective process overall. Because the PBD analyses took less than half the time of conventional tools, the design team was able to deliver better insight more quickly, resulting in earlier design alignment and better building performance.

With a good understanding of how performance-based design works in general, particularly when collaborating with others, it is worth taking a closer look at applying it to different phases of the design process. In the next three sections, we will look at early design, detailed design, and final design/construction documents in the context of using PBD.