Join us for Architectural Record’s sixth annual Innovation Conference, where we will study net zero-energy buildings, one of the most important strategies for securing a sustainable future.

The Architectural Record Innovation Conference offers attendees an exciting, in-depth look at how buildings are becoming super energy-efficient – even becoming generators of their own power.

Leading architects, engineers and scientists will present the latest on topics such as:

Opening Keynote Address
MIT Professor Explains Breakthrough Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution

Professor Daniel Nocera, Professor of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

What if there was a way to emulate the way that plants use photosynthesis to create energy from sunlight? Professor Daniel Nocera's solar energy lab recently discovered an inexpensive catalyst that makes splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen energy efficient and cheap. Be among the first people in the U.S. to hear the exciting news about this game-changing technical breakthrough.

Innovation Conference Special Guest Lecturer
A Green Future: Architecture to make life easy, beautiful, and healthy

Christoph Ingenhoven, Ingenhoven Architekten 

Christoph Ingenhoven has been practicing the principles of sustainable architecture on sophisticated projects, large and small, since he founded his practice 27 years ago. In his talk he will explain why ecology, the well being of the user, technical advances, and clean detailing have come to characterize his work. Projects that will be reviewed in the lecture include the RWE AG headquarters in Essen; the Lufthansa Aviation Center in Frankfurt/Main; the Uptown high-rise building in Munich; the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg, and the Main Railway Station in Stuttgart, a “zero-energy” station that requires no heating, cooling or mechanical ventilation.

Case Study: Masdar Headquarters

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture with Environmental Systems Design

Gordon Gill, Robert Forest and Mehdi Jalayerian will present the competition-winning Masdar Headquarters, the first building in the zero-waste, zero-carbon emission building in Masdar City, which will be built in Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates. The Masdar Headquarters will be the first mixed-use, positive-energy building in the world. AS+GG worked with MEP engineers Environmental Systems Design and structural engineers Thornton Tomasetti on the design.

Case Study: Richard J. Klarchek Information Commons

Solomon Cordwell Buenz with Transsolar KlimaEngineering

Mark Frisch and Matthias Schuler will present the just-completed Information Commons building at Loyola University, Chicago. Transsolar KlimaEngineering performed a detailed climate analysis during the design phase of this building in order to understand the unique challenges the site, which is on the shore of Lake Michigan. The resulting design of this just-completed building employs advanced mechanical systems, including mixed-mode ventilation: When outside air cannot be used to naturally heat or cool the internal space to comfortable levels, the building automation system automatically closes windows and its double-skin cavity walls. The building’s open spaces rely on a combination of radiant concrete ceilings and mechanical under-floor air to achieve optimal interior comfort with high indoor air quality. Daylight sensors dim the building’s fluorescent lighting when it is not needed.

Case Study: The New York Times

Glenn Hughes, President,
Glenn Hughes Consulting Associates

Glenn Hughes directed the construction of The New York Times building. He will demonstrate its innovative energy efficiency systems, including cogeneration, under-floor air distribution, automated shade controls and a lighting controls system that features digital dimmable ballasts. Mobile data collection and analytical tools were used to field measure the performance of these energy efficient systems, resulting in systems that truly live up to their promise of energy savings and occupant comfort.

A Tall Order? Skyscrapers and Zero Energy

Antony Wood, Executive Director, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat 

This presentation looks at the trends driving the recent unprecedented boom in tall buildings internationally, and in particular the role tall buildings can play in facing the considerable challenges of climate change. It analyzes the pros and cons of the skyscraper on sustainability grounds, and charts the rise of an environmental conscience in high rise architecture. In then presenting a number of theoretical tall building design projects developed by the author in conjunction with the CTBUH and academic-research institutions it seeks to answer the question of whether zero energy in skyscrapers is ever possible and, if so, what is needed to get there?

Energy and the Changing Workplace

Dr. Andrew Laing, Managing Director, DEGW North America 

Workspaces are used only 30 percent of the time, and that means high performance buildings used inefficiently can be just as wasteful as buildings that are not green.  By embracing new ways of working and new technologies (mobile working, distributed working, 'smart work centers'), companies and cities are discovering that they can intensify how space is used over time and avoid unnecessary commuting. Buildings get busier and space is not wasted. This session looks at how the research with users and cities the role that building design and use can play in achieving sustainability goals that go beyond technologically driven metrics of low carbon impact of the individual building.

Smarter Net-zero Energy Buildings:
Status and Future Directions

Steven Selkowitz, Head, Building Technologies Department
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 

Buildings are increasingly expected to meet higher, and potentially more complex levels of performance. They should be sustainable, use zero-net energy, be healthy and comfortable, grid-friendly, yet economical to build and maintain. Any one of these is challenging in itself, but achieving all would seem to be overwhelming.

In this session, the solutions that exist today will be explored, along with emerging technologies, a shift to integrated systems, and simulation tools that can help predict and optimize performance. This new focus includes continuous monitoring and dynamic control of loads for energy efficiency and comfort. Ideally, as intrinsic energy end-use decreases, these buildings will increasingly rely on a mix of on-site power, on-site storage, and recovered energy. We will look at how the building industry might move toward such a vision, and conclude with estimates of the impacts that a renewed, smart-building stock might have on our national energy use and carbon emissions.

Zero Energy Buildings: Smoke, Mirrors, or What?

Ron Judkoff, director, Center for Buildings and Thermal Systems
National Renewable Energy Laboratory 

This session will explore the zeroes: zero energy buildings, and ideas and implications of zero-site energy, zero-source energy, zero utility bills, and carbon neutral buildings. These concepts will be applied to several case studies that are among the best examples of ultra-energy efficient architecture. Although none of these buildings fully met the initial intentions of the design teams, their performance far exceeds conventional buildings that met their applicable energy codes. Finally, the session will conclude with a brief exploration of the potential energy, economic, and carbon-emissions impacts that are possible if an aggressive program to move the U.S. rapidly toward the zero-energy vision were enacted.

The Dynamics of Form: Maximizing Energy Performance Through Computation Analysis

Denzil Gallagher, Partner, MEP Regional Discipline Leader, Buro Happold North America

Reducing our use of carbon is an admirable goal, but we do not have to sacrifice the quality of our built environment in order to enhance our health. In fact, just the opposite is true. New technologies now make it possible for designers and engineers to navigate the synergistic relationship between architecture and building systems, which helps teams to predict energy use. By investigating the exchange of energy that occurs between the external environment and the internal spaces of a building in real time, professionals are changing the nature of the design process as well as the outcomes. When we consider that sustainability is not simply an application of technology, but an active part of the design process, we begin to improve the quality of engineering and architectural solutions to pressing problems.

Source: Architectural Record