Green Building Design: How to Engineer Sustainable Buildings

The single largest global environmental challenge today is climate change. Buildings are contributing to this issue, being responsible for approximately one third of the world's greenhouse gases. However, going forward they could also be part of the solution.

Reducing the environmental impact of buildings is a key factor when planning the future of sustainable cities. While legislation and energy codes are becoming increasingly stringent, more and more of building developers are committing to sustainability.

Sustainable Buildings Specialists

We specialise in designing high performance, energy- and resource-efficient buildings, tailored to client objectives and to the needs and well-being of occupants, and with a special focus on minimising their environmental and ecological impact.

Our projects include commercial and residential buildings, research laboratories, stadiums, museums and public infrastructure schemes. Our experience spans sustainable buildings such as Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, South Key Plaza in London, L’Avenue Shanghai, Sales Force Tower in San Francisco, National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, New City Office Complex in Warsaw, the Menlyn Maine green precinct development in Pretoria, and Four Seasons Hotel and Residences in Toronto.

Our teams are involved in both new buildings and the renovation of existing buildings. At new buildings, they hold design charrettes, create energy models, guide energy efficiency decisions and manage green building certifications. At existing buildings it’s a case of carrying out energy audits and retro-commissioning in order to recommend improvements and show cost benefits, so business owners can make the right decisions.

A Holistic Approach to Whole Life Cycle Design

Our holistic approach to green building design takes into account the whole life cycle of the building, from the earliest stages of design through construction and operation to demolition. We advise on building massing and orientation, consider the energy embodied in construction materials, optimize natural resources and incorporate renewables where possible.

In addition, we support clients worldwide in achieving the highest levels of green buildings ratings such as LEED in the US and Canada, BREEAM in the UK, and Green Star in Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Passive Design, Daylight Design and Facade Optimization

Working collaboratively with the architect during the early stages of design, we seek to maximize the inherent potential for passive environmental regulation. Through the application of natural ventilation, passive solar heating, daylight harvesting and thermal mass cooling, we can often improve building performance without increasing cost.

Harnessed effectively, designing for daylight can complement the architectural quality and character of a space while significantly reducing the energy demand of electric lighting. In addition, well day-lit environments promote occupant well-being and productivity. Our specialist teams use daylight modeling software to inform the design of building facades, light wells and atria. Our goal is to harvest beneficial natural light while mitigating the potentially detrimental side effects of glare and solar heat gain. We ensure that daylight and electric lighting designs are complementary, both in terms of energy efficiency and architectural aesthetic.

Our holistic approach to building energy modelling is an indispensable tool in developing facade solutions that maintain architectural character while delivering on energy, daylight and comfort.

Building Systems Design and Integration

In designing building systems, we take nature as our model. We simulate energy, water and waste flows as aspects of a single interrelated system. We utilize advanced system simulation software that provides us with almost unlimited flexibility to model and validate the performance of any combination of energy, water and waste system technologies.

To optimize water systems, we analyze opportunities to not only conserve water, but also to capture, treat and reuse this resource on-site. Our analysis starts early in the design process as we look for opportunities to integrate ecological water management into the design of rain, storm and wastewater systems.

Our work also involves tracking a building’s post-occupancy energy, water, and thermal comfort performance against our predictive models, highlighting discrepancies, recommending corrective actions and overseeing their implementation. Our teams are already designing buildings that are being held to performance bond contracts, and we expect this to be the way of the future.

Solutions Tailored for Clients and Building Occupants

Our solutions combine a commercial approach, technical excellence and creative thinking, tailored to our clients’ unique objectives and bearing in mind current and future building occupants. We deliver attractive, healthy, fit-for-purpose environments that add real value through enhanced user well-being, reduced energy and natural resources demand, improved performance and above all, higher market values.