Bullitt Center
The audacious performance goals demanded a highly collaborative, inclusive, and integrated process encompassing the client, design team, engineers, contractor, suppliers, multiple jurisdictions, and the greater community throughout the design process. This ensured all participants understood and bought into the sustainability goals, and were clear of their role and responsibility in achieving the overall desired results. The project made good use of a substantial pre-design phase, where building size and massing, architectural and MEP systems, and renewable energy production potential were proven, prior to the start of schematic design. The complexity of this approach required a new design process based in BIM to effectively manage the systems as they evolved. Virtually every design decision made had to support the net-zero energy target. For example, to optimize the power production of the photovoltaic array, the team created a process through which parametric modeling software made it possible to quickly test different geometric solutions to achieve the highest power production. Another example is daylighting, which is an essential component of the net-zero requirements. Daylighting analysis drove not only the massing of the project, but the configuration of the curtain wall, skylights, and shading.
Project Contributors
