Features
Pope Francis' Environmental Encyclical
By Drake Wauters, AIA
The Vatican Encyclical Letter “On Care for Our Common Home” issued May 24, 2015 contains a great deal of insight and advisement regarding how society uses world resources, shares those resources, and assures that those resources are not consumed before or destroyed for future generations. What follows is not about religion or politics but hopefully can reflect in some part on how the profound themes of this encyclical letter bear on the profession of architecture and how truly important our actions are in addressing the needs of our clients and society.
Energy Savings Made Easy: The "Low-Hanging Fruit" Methods to Reduce Energy Consumption
By David W. Altenhofen AIA
At the AIA Convention in Atlanta, President Clinton, when asked about his advice to architects, replied that we should go after the “low hanging fruit”. I think in many ways he is right. Our profession sometimes tends to want to jump to the sophisticated, complicated and highly technological solutions while we may be overlooking the very simple measures. In fact, missing the simple measures may be undermining those more advanced solution. Literally every building can incorporate simple features of energy efficient enclosure design.
Call for Subjects! Submit Your Ideas
TDBP would like to open up our Technique newsletters to membership participation. To gain feedback from you, we pose the question, “What is important to you regarding Technical Design for Building Performance and what topics would you be interested in reading about in future Technique issues?” With this feedback, we will establish subjects for upcoming Technique newsletters and solicit member articles for future newsletters. If you would like to participate, please email your response to TDBP@aia.org. We appreciate your continued support of our efforts!
AIA + 2030 Online Series Sessions
In order to help design professional meet the energy efficiency and emission reduction goals of the 2030 Challenge and AIA 2030 Commitment, Architecture 2030, AIA and AIA Seattle teamed up to translate the AIA+2030 Professional Series into online, on-demand content.
The AIA+2030 Online Series consists of ten, 1-hour courses covering strategies to reach a 70% or greater reductions in fossil fuel greenhouse gas emissions, giving design professionals the knowledge and leverage to create next-generation, super-efficient buildings - and provide firms with the skills that will set them apart in the marketplace.
Earn LUs Courtesy of KC Webinars
The AIA Knowledge Communities has a variety of upcoming webinars. Please take a moment to see if any mentioned below interest you. A full listing of our webinars can be found on the Webinar Calendar.
Computation, Metrics, and Data Analysis in Practice
Tuesday, September 22, 2015 | 2:00 - 3:00pm ET | Earn 1.0 AIA LU | Learn more
Sponsored by AIA Technology in Architectural Practice
Registration fees: Free
Stay Out of Debtor's Prison: How to Handle Legal & Contractual Issues with the ADA & FHA
Wednesday, September 30, 2015 | 1:00 - 2:00pm ET | Earn 1.0 AIA LU | Learn more
Sponsored by AIA Construction Contract Administration
Registration fees: Free
Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Strategies at a Community and District Scale
Wednesday, October 14, 2015 | 12:00 - 1:00pm ET | Earn 1.0 AIA LU | Learn more
Sponsored by AIA Regional and Urban Design Committee
Registration fees: Free
Redefining the Rules: A Deep Energy Retrofit Presentation for Architects & Facility Managers
Thursday, November 5, 2015 | 1:00 - 2:15pm ET | Earn 1.25 AIA LUs | Learn more
Sponsored by AIA Corporate Architects and Facility Management
Registration fees: Free
New AIA Member-Only Research Databases Now Available Through BRIK
Professionally-reviewed research is available through the Building Research Information Knowledgebase (BRIK). The BRIK collection is free and can be navigated by categories such as systems: enclosures. This portal now includes a subscription feature to three EBSCO databases: the Sustainability Reference Center, Art & Architecture Complete, and the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals. The EBSCO-powered portion of BRIK is offered to AIA members and to NIBS members. A free test drive of these databases is underway through September, after which members can subscribe for a nominal annual fee.
