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By Sara Hart

Trends and predictions

When asked what research and development is garnering the most attention, Siegal says that sustainability is the most important. “Green, recycled, or materials that don’t off-gas is very important to my clients and myself,” she explains.

Brownell agrees with Siegal about the need for sustainable products and processes, especially when complying with the Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System, a consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. “LEED is taking off like wildfire, and affecting the entire construction industry. For example, just recently, the State of Washington ruled that all new state buildings be LEED Silver minimum; the University of Washington also mandates LEED Silver for all its new construction,” explains Brownell. “We’re even seeing shell and core developer interest in LEED, which is quite interesting. Many architects will be forced to become LEED accredited very quickly, given the market demand.”

“I would say that another area concerns technology and process, which would correspond to my ‘interfacial’ category,” he continues. “The computer is radically changing how we construct buildings, from sharing digital CAD files with subcontractors to translating data directly to building materials. For example, the Italian company Abet Laminati makes photo-cast tiles, using a digital imaging process for exterior laminate panels.” Siegal adds, “The ‘smart’ materials such as color changing, shape forming, composites, and so on, are truly the wave of the future. There is also a great deal of interest in the processes of forming shapes and building components. Three-dimensional printing is used primarily in my office to create models of buildings to achieve cost and time savings.”

Brownell is particularly drawn to “recombinant” materials, such as Plasphalt [a proprietary combination of asphalt and plastic, developed by TEWA Technology]. “It derives its performance from the combination of dissimilar ingredients to create a whole that is stronger than the sum of the parts,” explains Brownell. “It represents a trend that many manufacturers have been implementing, which is to create these hybrid or composite materials in order to use materials in a smarter way, to use fewer raw materials, and/or to divert resources from the waste stream.”

Proof is in the details

Materials make it to the market place with greater ease these days, but how do the new and unusual make it into projects? NBBJ is designing Alley 24, a 362,000-square-foot mixed-use project in the South Lake Union district of Seattle, scheduled for occupancy in early 2006. Part of the program calls for 172 market-rate residential units. The program also required that the architect incorporate sustainable features, including daylighting, operable windows and sunshades, and sustainable materials.

Brownell and colleague Andrew McCune led the facade-design team. Although the budget was tight, they wanted to get away from the typical Seattle cladding materials—Dryvit, vinyl siding, and corrugated metal, while addressing the sustainability issues. Because of Brownell’s experience collecting and evaluating new products and processes, he proposed several new hardboards that could conceivably perform well as exterior cladding. At first, the client balked, not wanting to take a risk on an unfamiliar material with no precedent for the proposed application.