Mauricio J. Toledo

Sustainability in Early Stages of
Virtual Design and Construction (VDC)

CIFE Seed Proposal #PPMO404

CIFE Research Thrust Area: Product, Organization and Process Modeling

Principal Investigator: Martin A. Fischer

Research Performed by: Mauricio J. Toledo

The Big Idea

To formalize the representation of sustainability considerations in product, organization and process models and the reasoning to integrate and work with these models to support the early phases of design.

Project Summary

Sustainable development has attracted much attention in recent years. Therefore, there is an increasing awareness of environmental issues affecting construction projects, which range from energy consumption, heat losses; water consumption to emission of pollutants during construction and after completion.

The aim of this seed research is to explore how VDC methods can help incorporate sustainability considerations – specifically related to energy consumption – in the early stages of a design (when the level of influence is high and before committing large amounts of money). The research focuses on the extension of the VDC approach to include sustainability considerations, with valuable insights even at the coarse level of detail of the models. Today’s energy-related analysis tools, however, require a relatively good definition of the project alternatives, which is not the case in the early stages of a project.

Finally, we will explore the potential for generalization of the findings toward other parameters, beyond energy consumption, affecting the “greenness” of projects.

Research Proposal

(PDF download)

Project Presentation

(i-room 3-screen presentation download: LEFT, MIDDLE, RIGTH)

Project Update

(January, 2005)

As part of the planned work, I have developed a methodology (roadmap) to incorporate sustainable considerations within the context of VDC. The first draft of this methodology was tested in Dr. John Kunz’s class, CEE243-Virtual Design and Construction in the winter quarter of 2004-2005. The Level-1 energy simulation was done using GreenBuildingStudio.

The whole process is explained in the class website (CEE243 website).

(February, 2005)

The methodology to include sustainable considerations early in the design process is described in the form of a Narrative (gPOP Narrative). Narratives are “a simple, formal way to engage in integrated multidisciplinary design and analysis” (Haymaker).

The idea is to use this tool (Narratives) as a way to develop a roadmap of sustainable design that could be replicated in other projects. Based on this pilot experience I’m currently working on a newer version of the gPOP Narrative that incorporates some of the feedback provided by the users.

(March, 2005)

As part of the planned work, during the end of the Winter quarter 2004-2005 (March 2005), I conducted two interviews with key stakeholders involved in the design and construction of two emblematic “green” projects in the Stanford University area. The projects are: (1) Leslie Shao-ming Sun Field Station located at the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve; and (2) Global Ecology Research Center (Carnegie Institution).

In the first case study (Jasper Ridge), the key stakeholder interviewed is Philippe Cohen, the Administrative Director of the Biological Preserve, who was involved in the project since the early design and he still continues his involvement throughout the operation of the facility.

In the second case (Global Ecology Research Center), the stakeholder interviewed was Brad Jacobson, Project Architect from EHDD Architecture. He participated in the design team since the very beginning of the project and he still provides support to the users with some fine tuning of the building and he has participated of the post occupancy survey.

The case studies will help me to understand some of the key elements of the process that enabled the design for sustainability in the context of the Product, Process and Organization (POP). The discoveries from these case studies will be posted as updates in this websites as soon as they are available.

Comments and suggestions are welcome. Please send them to: mjtoledo@stanford.edu