by Kate Schwennsen, FAIA

It’s hot here in Iowa. According to the evening news, it’s hot just about everywhere—London, Berlin, Rome. Paris may not be burning, but it’s stifling and oppressively hot like everything else this side of the equator.

Seems like a good time to write about the intersection of design and policy.

During the course of the first general session at the recent AIA National Convention, there was a lively exchange between panelists Craig Webb and Thom Mayne. The issue was the role of architecture in revitalizing place. The poles of the discussion were, on the one hand, the impact of design (training, inspiration, creativity) and, on the other, the importance of policy; in other words, the political infrastructure that either enables or gets in the way of the architect’s ability to design more livable, healthy, safe, and sustainable communities. Chicken and egg, you might say.

Bill McDonough’s presentation at the final general session was something of an omelet, giving equal weight to smart (i.e., “green”) design and smart policy. According to my notes, Bill said that achieving eco-effective management of the planet requires that the genius of architects be joined at the hip with politics and economics. The architect has to be engaged. Not surprisingly, Bill seems to be on a first-name basis with everyone from the head of Ford Motors to the Premier of China.

AIA is a bridge
Whether by choice or accident, few of us are that plugged in. We simply don’t have that many contacts on our Blackberries with our governor or local Fortune 500 franchise. At the intersection of design and public policy, most of us are parked at the curb. So, if Bill McDonough is right—and I think he is—individual architects need an advocate, a bridge, a liaison between us and those who create the political and economic template on which design takes shape. Historically, that’s been the AIA’s role. Effective advocacy is a measure, maybe one of the most important, of how we value the investment we make as members.

So what’s the return been on our investment in the critical area of sustainability, what’s in the pipeline, and what can we do through the AIA to advance our value as an essential resource?

First, the return on investment. AIArchitect subscribers read last month that the U.S. Conference of Mayors voted unanimously to adopt the AIA’s position on sustainability. How’d that happen? The catalyst seems to have been an AIA presentation delivered at a meeting last May of the Conference’s Energy and Environment Summit.

Okay. But what is the AIA doing for me today?

Good question!
Last year’s Energy Policy Act (which was an AIA priority) provides for builders and/or renovators of commercial buildings a tax deduction of up to $1.80 a square foot of building space for buildings designed to use at least 50 percent less energy than the model building energy code (ASHRAE 90.1-2001). One-third of the deduction ($.60 per) may be redeemed for installing each of the following three energy-efficient systems: lighting; HVAC; building envelope. The IRS has published draft guidance that describes in detail methods for calculating and verifying energy and power consumption and cost.

The provision also provides that for government buildings (where the tax credit is of no value to the government agency) the person primarily responsible for designing the property receives the tax break. IRS guidance on this issue is in the works prodded by the AIA.

More evidence on the return on investment? Here’s a short list of what’s currently in play:

• HR 5644, Green Energy Education Act of 2005: This bill would authorize the National Science Foundation to use Energy Department funds to support graduate education in architecture and engineering in advanced energy research, as well as fund the development of undergraduate and graduate interdisciplinary curricula involving high-performance buildings.
• HR 5633, Energy Efficient Buildings Act of 2005: This legislation would create a pilot program (authorized at $10 million per year for five years, 2008 through 2012) that would give grants of up to 50 percent of design costs (limited to $50,000 per grant) for new buildings and major renovations shown to meet specific energy reduction targets.
• High Performance Green Buildings Act of 2006: This is legislation about to be introduced that would move the federal government in the direction of constructing more green buildings.
• On June 22, the AIA submitted written testimony to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in support of S. 2747, the Enhanced Energy Security Act of 2006. The AIA’s testimony urged the incorporation of a 50 percent energy reduction target—similar to the target in the AIA’s Board’s policy position—for federal buildings.

Part of the solution
Of course, that’s just a quick overview. The larger point is that security and the economy (can $80 a barrel of oil be far behind?) are aligning national policy in such a way that government and business are searching for solutions that will turn this country away from the bad old way of managing resources. We architects can do our part to prepare ourselves to be a key part of the solution. To do so, we need the collective force of our professional community, the AIA, to make sure that policy and design intersect quickly and in ways most likely to achieve the desired result of an abundant, healthy planet.

What can we as individual members do? That’s another good question: If you’re not already acquainted with the AIA’s legislative agenda, use some of the dog days of summer to get up to speed. Then, keep your eyes peeled for Action Alerts that ask for help (e-mails, letters, personal contact) to encourage our senators/representatives to vote for specific AIA-backed bills. AIA membership is somewhere around 75,000, which in the larger scheme of things isn’t very big. But if all of us push together, we will arrive at an intersection, a creative tipping point from which our profession and our nation will move beyond where we are now to where we want and need to be.

Design and policy intersect in every conversation and decision related to sustainability. We cannot design sustainably without policies to support and enable that design. We cannot advocate for sustainability policies without understanding their manifestation in the built environment. The AIA is a credible advocate for change around sustainable design because we occupy this intersection. It really comes down to each of us acting individually and collectively, as designers and policy advocates, as ethical and knowledgeable practitioners and members. It’s as simple as that. And if not for us, for our children. As Al Gore says in his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, hot as it may be, this is our home. We have nowhere else to go.

Copyright 2006 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved. Home Page