What is the Design-Build process? How does it work?

The design-build process creates a single source of responsibility to take a project from concept to completion.  This not only removes the frustration of shifting blame between the design and construction phases of a project, but it also allows for a team approach to problem solving.

Once a basic concept has been developed, we arrange a charrette which is a design meeting that pulls together all of the major stakeholders in a project.  Typically this meeting will include the homeowner, the design team, the production manager, the carpenters, the electrician, the HVAC contractor, the plumber, the landscaper, and others.  This meeting allows us to identify possible problems early in the process. It also allows us to design with more detail by bringing together and harvesting the knowledge base of each trade.

What are advantages of the Design-Build process?

1. Reduced Problems – By bringing everyone into the process to work together, problems are more easily identified and solved in the design phase.
2. Reduced Frustration – In the traditional approach in which one company does the design and another does the construction, there is an ongoing ping-pong match of blame. In the design-build approach, the designer and the contractor work together as a team, resulting in a cohesive and cooperative process.
3. Reduced Resistance – With shared responsibility comes a shared motivation to solve problems. In the traditional approach, more effort goes into denying responsibility than taking it. The design-build approach allows for increased team work, reduced stress, and an easier path to problem solving.
4. Improved Designs – Designers are not construction experts. When a contractor is placed on the design team with shared responsibility, you can bet that design is going to be mindful of difficulties that can arise in construction. The design-build process allows for very detailed designs that consider fine details.
5. Cost Savings – If handled properly, savings do not come in the design phase. In fact, as designs become more detailed they can also become more expensive. The return comes from improved cost engineering and reduced problems during construction.  A designer cannot be expected to understand material and labor considerations of the construction process, much less each trade in the process.  When asked to be a part of value-engineering in the design-phase, trade contractors are often able to make recommendations that cut costs without compromising quality.

Our green building tip-from-the-past for today derives from the previous blog’s thoughts about using local materials. The biggest local material that you have access to is your existing home. In the past, families didn’t always move out of their home when it became too small, leaving it potentially vacant. Instead they built on to it, or adapted certain room functions to make it usable and comfortable. Sustainability is about the management of existing resources to ensure they continue to be available for future generations. What better way is there for you to do this than to start with your home?

One way you can manage and improve upon your “home resource” is by remodeling spaces that aren’t functional or should be updated to add efficiency. You can also add additions onto your home, small or large, that compliment your existing home and give you needed space and amenities. In tough economic times, remodeling and additions can help you be comfortable in the home you live in without having the expense of purchasing a new one. They are also methods that add value to your home in the present and future. This is a great link to a diagram that illustrates some benefits of green improvements.  As you remodel and add to your home, don’t forget to include green products and building techniques throughout the design and execution.

For an example of the reuse of buildings, take a look at the Historic Downtown of Bryan. The City is really focusing on bringing life back into the area which dissipated during the sprawl of Bryan-College Station. As businesses and families return to the historical buildings, they make careful but necessary changes to these structures to meet modern needs while preserving and improving character. This is a great effort to make use of existing building resources while rooting our community in the past! Hopefully it will inspire you to explore the potential of your home as a local resource and a green building.

Today’s glance at the past to help with green building in the present is more about a building ideology than a building type. When most people built their homes and businesses a hundred years ago, they didn’t order bamboo flooring that took months to cross the pacific from Asia. Instead, they used the materials readily available around them. And we can do the same.

What would be the benefits of building your home with local materials? To put it bluntly, the benefits encompass the pros of sustainable living, socially, economically, and environmentally! For one thing, your use of local materials would decrease the cost of transportation and the effects of transportation for those resources. It would also be a way to support your local businesses and economies, which in turn vitalizes and strengthens your community’s culture. Also, your home will be easy to maintain for the future (with repairs and additions) because the materials are close by.

What kinds of local materials are there in Texas?

Mesquite, cedar, pine, and oak trees are found growing abundantly in different areas of our state. These woods can be used for a building’s structure, or for its interior as cabinetry and flooring. There has even been some experimentation with sawdust and ground wood blocks for insulation purposes.

Our Texas soil is also a resource that can be used as a raw building material. Caliche, a soil rich in calcium, can form sturdy bricks when mixed with sand, pozzolan, and lime which are also local soil materials. Adobe can be made from the sandy clay soil in the dry areas of north-western Texas. Rammed earth is always another building option that uses compacted soil to make very dense thermal mass walls. Gypsum found in local soil can be used to make Plaster of Paris (a wall finishing material) when fired and mixed with water. There is also beautiful local stone in Texas, such as the limestone in the central Hill Country.

Think about your water supply as a local material. There are methods that help you collect rainwater from your home for use in your home (no transportation necessary). You can also reuse water grey water in your gardens to prevent overuse of local drinking water sources.

There are even products developing from experimentation with local recycled content or “waste”. Some of these can be purchases through companies that resell materials like lumber from building demos. Others take non-building materials like recycled glass and turn it into tile and countertops for use in your home. Fly ash, a by-product of coal-burning power plants, has been experimented with in Texas to make cement for building.

As new green building products continue to be developed, be sure to research where they come from and use local materials whenever possible. Stearns Design Build has made this a goal for our company. We strive to bring high-quality local products into all varieties of projects, helping your home become a green home.

Let’s take a look at another vernacular house design and think about ways it relates to green home building for Bryan-College Station. Today’s building style under examination is the shotgun house.

This building was a long narrow house normally built in urban areas of the South where lot size was also long and narrow. The structure was one room wide and several rooms long, with a small front and back porch. Sometimes there was also a porch along one of the sides as well. There was no hallway in the house, but all the doors lined up with each other so that when open a breeze would bring cool air through the spaces. Normally, the front space was a living room and the back space was a kitchen, with bedrooms in between. Occasionally, a partial second story was added to the back of the house. Overall, it was a very “no-nonsense” structure.

What are some green home ideas that we can glean from the shotgun house?

Firstly, we can take the idea of the importance of adapting a home to a specific site location. The narrowness of an urban site prompted the shape of the shotgun house. Similarly, green homes designed today should mold to their sites. Another idea to hold on to is the encouraging of airflow through spaces. Whether this pertains to natural breezes, air conditioning, or both, the intentional directing of air will make cooling and heating more efficient. Although the layout of rooms in a shotgun house may not seem very private, it brings up an interesting idea about zoning. By grouping rooms with similar needs and uses together, we can make a home more functional and reduce construction materials. For example, connecting or stacking locations such as laundry rooms, kitchens, and baths (which all use hot water) eliminates the need to pipe water all over the house.

With the shotgun house there is also a call to simplicity. Simplicity poses the question of how we can reduce excess space (thereby conserving space) without reducing comfort or privacy. This question is definitely one to ponder when considering building a new home and/or remodeling.

What other building types and techniques from the past can direct our development of green building? Let’s take a look at the “dog run” or “dogtrot” house. This type of building contained two separate rooms or structures that were connected by a single large roof. The connection created a breezeway or “dogtrot” between the structures that pulled cooler air through the space and created a pleasant, covered outdoor area. “Dogtrot” houses normally had front and back covered porches that shaded windows which were often left open to similarly draw breezes through (since at the time air conditioning didn’t exist). The open covered breezeway also separated function, as one structure was normally used as a cooking and eat-in space, with the other being a private living area or bedroom.

So what ideas can we take from this building to use in Bryan-College Station house design?

Definitely the idea of having an outdoor covered area that facilitates breezes. It provides a place to connect with the outdoors and also helps to cool flanking buildings by wicking away heat. Since breezes can be unwanted in the winter, a method could be developed for closing off this space when the weather turns chilly, truly making it an indoor-outdoor area.

Also, in more of a design theory approach, we can learn from the distinction of private and public areas of the house and think of ways to interestingly connect them. This creates transitions and relations that add dimension and functionality to spaces in the home. In the future this might also facilitate efficiency, by being able to focus a majority of energy to certain separate areas of the house at certain times while others areas are not in use. (Just like the lights in the freezer sections of grocery stores that only turn on when you walk down the aisle!) Possibly a crazy thought, but then innovations begin by thinking beyond the norm!

It is often said that learning from the past helps us avoid future mistakes. Could it be possible that techniques and constructions methods for homes 100 years ago could help shape and guide our green building ideas of today?

To answer this question, let’s look at vernacular (or native) construction methods that were used in Texas.  A type of building commonly used by Hispanic settlers in the 1800’s was a jacal. This skeleton of this structure was small upright intermediate posts between large upright corner posts. These posts were built around and filled in with rubble, rammed earth, stone, or sticks, before being mudded or plastered both inside and out. The resulting walls were thick and solid, about 6 to 10 inches wide. This thickness helped to insulate the building, keeping the inside cool during hot summer days. This same idea of a thick exterior wall was also used in adobe construction.

This idea of a thick exterior wall (what we call a thermal mass wall) helping to regulate heat transfer is something we’re very interested in at Stearns Design Build. We are intrigued by dynamic thermal mass walls that prevent heat from entering interior spaces in the summer and exiting interior spaces in the winter. We at Stearns are currently dreaming up and developing a two chamber wall system that will, like a thermal mass wall, help to heat and cool interior spaces. This positively answers the question that began this blog—techniques from the past can help us develop innovative building ideas.

Check out our blog about rethinking wall systems for more information about other wall types and how they relate to ideas about efficiency.

There was a recent article in the opinion section of the New York Times that very poignantly identified the need for changes in the housing industry, especially the rising need for thinking-outside-of-the-box in regard to single-family homes. What are some changes in designing that should take place? And how can these changes be beneficial to you, your community, and the environment?

One necessary part of design, that is often overlooked, is the connection a home has to the climate and terrain of its site. Many newer homes are guilty of being copied-and-pasted into a plethora of different locations throughout the nation regardless of site specific issues. Each piece of land is different, and has different beauties that should be accentuated and enjoyed through your home design. At Stearns, we believe a home should not isolate you behind four walls, but should instead allow you to be part of the living environment around you. This connection of the indoors and outdoors is a major factor in our approach to sustainable design and living, what we call our Transitions philosophy.

Taking location into consideration can also help make your home more efficient and functional. In our Texas climate, your home can be uncomfortable if you have direct sunlight coming into rooms during the summer. And wouldn’t it be wonderful to have an outdoor space to enjoy no matter what the time of year? Orienting a home on its site for sun paths and breezes, as well as providing appropriate shading for windows and outdoor areas, are ways to make the inside and outside spaces of your home usable and enjoyable.

Remember, your home is an expression of you and should therefore be unique like you. Not everyone lives in the same place, enjoys the same lifestyle, and has the same needs, so not everyone should have exactly the same house.

One of the most important elements in Building Science as it relates to energy conservation is the building envelope.  This roughly means the floor, walls and ceiling.  The envelope is the interface between conditioned and non-conditioned space.

In this country we have developed wall systems that we think of as static (even though they are not.) What we mean by this is that the wall system does not interact with the environment on either side of the wall.  Basically it is insulated and intended to minimize that interaction.

An example of a non-static, or dynamic, wall is adobe.  An adobe wall is made up of a monolithic thermal mass that heats up during the day and cools during the night.  Because the wall is relatively thick, the heat, from the outside in the summer and from the inside in the winter, does not have time to migrate through the wall before the outside temperatures change to reverse the direction of movement.

For many reasons, including labor costs, a manufacturing mindset and available resources, most of the country has developed wood frame and insulation exterior walls.  We have not considered dynamic wall systems.  As fuel prices and concerns about environmental depletion and global warming continue to rise, dynamic wall systems may prove fruitful in reducing building energy consumption and the use of harmful manufactured products such as Freon and foam insulation.

One approach to using thermal mass has been Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs). These forms are made of foam insulation that, once placed, are filled with concrete providing an internal thermal mass.  This is an interesting approach that may speak to some of the cognitive hurdles that we face in trying to think outside of our current mindset to improve building techniques.  There are two telling aspects in the development of ICF  technology.

First of all, this system takes a dynamic material: concrete, and isolates it inside foam insulation, thus pushing it toward being static.  Studies show that in almost all applications, surrounding thermal mass by insulation is less effective than placing it on the outside.

Another interesting aspect of how this technology has developed is that it allows for an easily mechanized building process.  The forms are manufactured in a plant and because they are lightweight they can be shipped relatively inexpensively to job sites at long distances.

The idea of static wall systems and production building has helped drive the development of ICFs.  These aspects are interesting because they may exemplify what we can and cannot modify as we think about envelope systems.  We are not necessarily confined to static systems, but it may be difficult to escape the gravity of this long-held mindset.  Through the development of “green” building there has been a lot of focus placed on insulation.  In recent years we have also become more aware of the impact of air infiltration.  This has basically been recognition of the inevitable dynamic nature of a building.  Our approach has largely been to reduce air infiltration, thus rendering the building less dynamic.  While I would not argue against the need to control air infiltration, it does seem that perhaps we can make good use of dynamic systems, which may be assisted by somewhat of a cognitive shift in a naturally occurring prejudice against dynamic building systems.

At Stearns Design Build we have become fascinated with the idea of dynamic wall systems.  Our perspective is that of a design build firm.  We lack, but seek more, data. It is this desire for more information that is the motivation of this writing.

We hope to design and build a new shop and office space in the fairly near future that will use a cost-effective, dynamic, two chamber wall system that we hope to use to cool and heat the building without the use of refrigerants other than for de-humidification.  As we move in this direction we hope to find thermodynamic understanding that will allow us to calculate, rather than guess at, the various components of this system for our particular hot, humid climate. It is our hope to eventually use this technology to build net-zero custom homes.

Next I will present a cross-section of the wall system and begin identifying the variables affecting the dynamic system.