Page 230 - Green Building Through Integrated Design

206 DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

water use by 40 percent. Reclaimed oak from a nineteenth century barn was used
for the flooring, and timbers from an old pier were repurposed as ceiling trusses
and trellises. The cabinetry and ceiling products were made from sunflower husks,
and the insulation contains recycled denim.*

Photography by Reed Kaestner, courtesy of Black Mountain Ranch.

Energy Design Questions

Energy-related issues in the design development stage are so important to the future
success of the project that it’s worth spending a little time to see how it’s done in high-
performance projects. In the previous chapter, we quoted Paul Stoller about his
approach to schematic design for Yale University’s Sculpture Building and Gallery.
Let’s pick up the story in design development: †

Once we were in the design development phase, we did the traditional whole build-
ing energy model. We built and completed that before 50 percent design development
(DD) so that we could validate it against our schematic design models. In the second
half of DD we did testing on design options that were available at that time. At that

*Del Sur Living [online], http://www.delsurliving.com/ranchhouse.php, accessed April 2008.
†
Interview with Paul Stoller, Atelier Ten, March 2008.