0968995 University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Helene Hilger 0968929 Carnegie-Mellon University; Volker Hartkopf 0968975 Appalachian State University; Jeffrey Ramsdell
The Center for Sustainable and Integrated Buildings and Sites (SIBS) will focus on a joint industry and university research on integrated building design and site development. The proposed Center includes the University of North Carolina-Charlotte (UNC-Charlotte, Charlotte NC) as the lead institution, with research sites at Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU, Pittsburgh, PA), and Appalachian State University (ASU, Boone, NC).
The primary goals of this planning project are to initiate formal partnership with various industry partners and government/non-governmental agencies that have an interest in creating a more sustainable built environment. The research themes at the proposed IUCRC are aimed at the industry need to respond to regulatory and public demands for minimizing virgin material use, water use, non-renewable energy use, and waste generation, and also at the societal need to protect the natural systems that support human life. The proposed Center offers the integrated expertise of architecture, building science, site design and natural system science. Each site director comes from already existing university centers, so that while sharing expertise through SIBS, the PIs can leverage existing university support from their respective sites. The proposed Center will accelerate the rate at which performance-tested, environmentally sound, and more sustainable buildings and site features are routinely employed in new and existing buildings.
The proposed IUCRC will increase the research capabilities and competitiveness of the building industry. In addition to broad economic implications, the work of the Center will have impacts on U.S. efforts to meet climate change targets, and the critical societal need to sustain natural capital reserves and maintain the integrity of ecosystem services. Students engaged in SIBS research will be leaders in the cadres of new architects and engineers to shape the future built environment. The Center plans to include student opportunities for site and international exchanges, programmatic professional development and cross-mentoring programs, and a shared core course on the life cycle relationships between buildings and natural systems. The PIs also plan to collaborate with several community colleges in North Carolina and two historically Black institutions in Charlotte and Greensboro.
The Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) was founded in 1981. The Center’s supporting Advanced Building Systems Integration Consortium (ABSIC), initiated in 1987, is the first private/public partnership in the building industry. In 1988, the CBPD and ABSIC became the first NSF/IUCRC in that industry. Supported by ABSIC and NSF, the Director of the CBPD, Dr. Volker Hartkopf, raised the necessary funds and led the design, engineering, construction and now the maintenance of the Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace (IW), the first living (continuously improved and updated ) lived-in (experienced, monitored, reported and verified) Total Building Performance Laboratory in the building industry, opened in 1997. This research, development, demonstration lab focuses on the integration of building enclosure (facades, roofs and basements), heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and structural systems to be most energy, environmentally and cost-effective and provide for human health and comfort. Advances in creating win-win-win solutions to provide thermal, visual, spatial, ergonomic, acoustic and air qualities cost-effectively while saving up to 80-90% of the average energy consumption, as well as considerably reducing negative environmental impacts of present-day commercial building design, engineering, construction and operations. This leadership enabled the CBPD to become a strategic consultant and to help realize break-through projects in Korea, China, France, Germany and North America. Examples include the Kangnam Tower of LG Honeywell in Seoul, Korea; the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) Agenda 21 Headquarters, and Tsinghua University’s Low Energy Demo, project both in Beijing, China; the Laboratory of the Design for Cognition at Electricite de France in Paris; the Mercedes Benz Marketing Academy in Stuttgart, Germany; Owens Corning Headquarters in Toledo, Ohio; Region III Headquarters of the Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Agency(EPA),Harrisburg, PA; the General Services Administration (GSA) Adaptable Workplace Laboratory in Washington, DC; and many other projects. Furthermore, the 32 graduates from our PhD program are effective faculty members at leading edge universities in the US, Europe and Asia, as well as researchers with major global building related industries, including United Technologies Research Center (UTRC), Philips Lighting, and IBM in the US, as well as major European and Asian companies. The NSF/IUCRC program supported the CBPD from 1989 to 2001 two years more than normally allowed, because of funding from federal agencies coming through NSF. In 2009, with the growing need for improved building performance in energy conservation and improved quality of life, as well as job creation challenges, the CBPD was encouraged by the NSF/IUCRC to join universities in the US and to partner within the proposed Sustainable Integrated Buildings and Sites (SIBS) to further advance the performance of the North American built environments. Regarding global applications and policy related opportunities and challenges, the Director of the CBPD was asked to serve as Chair of the Think Tank of Best Practices within the United Nations Environmental Program Sustainable Building Climate Initiative (UNEP SBCI) and he also serves as Academic Advisor to the Bayer EcoCommercial Building Program. Vivian Loftness, University Professor of Architecture at CMU, served as Board Member for United States Green Building Council (USGBC) for 6 years, serves on a number of National Academy of Engineering panels and is globally recognized for her leadership in the development of the Building Investment Decision Support (BIDS) tool, which includes over 360 case studies that link building performance to organizational productivity, human health, comfort and energy and establishes the critical needs between building performance and economics. Professor Dr. Khee Poh Lam is a board member for the US Energy Foundation and is leading urban sustainability projects in China. Azizan Aziz, Sr. Research Architect, has developed the National Environmental Assessment Toolkit (NEAT) and is leading the applications of this tool in the evaluation of major buildings and performances in the US and France. Professor Stephen Lee now serves as Head of the School of Architecture in the College of Fine Arts at CMU and has lead 3 National Solar Decathlon Student Competitions entries in 2003, 2005, and 2007. The whole team is a strategic partner within the National Energy Effective HUB, The Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster (GPIC).
