Back to the Future: Combining Historic Strategies with Modern Technology for Maximized Passive Survivability
Explore how timeless passive design principles and historic resilience strategies can work alongside modern building technologies to create more durable, energy-efficient, and survivable buildings.
About the live course
In this joint partnership between the Building Performance Knowledge Community (BPKC) and the Resilience and Disaster Response Community (RADR), panelists will review historic cooling, heating, and resilience strategies and discuss how they can be used to amplify and expand the effectiveness of emerging technology for passive survivability and energy efficiency. By designing for aesthetics first and then using modern HVAC and other solutions to overcome any inefficiencies second, we are doing ourselves, our clients, and our communities a grave disservice.
In the 1999 essay On Slowness by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, there is a quote from Milan Kundara: “There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting.”
The speed with which we develop new technologies to enhance our building performance increases our forgetting of the basic principles that helped people survive for hundreds of years without air conditioning and ducted heat. Building science and technology continue to evolve and advance in both possibilities for improved outcomes and complexity. The more we learn about vented rainscreens, smart vapor barriers, all in one water resistive barriers, and insulation products, the more intricate our detailing becomes. High-performance envelopes are exciting and full of promise, even with the challenges of coordination and installation execution. Join us for a 60-minute discussion of getting back to basics as a way to further progress in building resilience and passive survivability.
- Learn strategies for passive cooling that were used by ancient populations.
- Understand historic building developments related to maintaining indoor temperatures in cold climates, including naturally insulating materials, mass walls, solar heat gain, and radiant heating.
- Learn how to adapt older passive climate control strategies to contemporary building types and construction processes.
- Gain an understanding of which historic strategies to use with which modern technologies to maximize survivability in the wake of climate events.
Presented in partnership with the Building Performance Knowledge Community (BPKC) and the Resilience and Disaster Response Community (RADR).
A high-impact, four-part intensive program designed to equip firm leaders with the strategy, leadership, and financial skills to scale their practice and drive long-term success.
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