The AIA has challenged all architects to reduce the use of
fossil fuels in buildings by 50% by the year 2010. Shouldn't this
charge be reflected in the AIA's most prestigious design awards,
the National Honor Awards? And how do you "green" these awards
programs? That was the charge given to a group of Knowledge
Community Advisory Group members, some of whom have also been
national honor awards jurors, earlier this year. During the course
of several meetings, this committee, comprised of Jean Carroon,
FAIA (representing the Historic Resources Committee), Katherine
Austin, AIA (Housing), Anne Schopf, FAIA (Committee on Design), and
Henry Siegel, FAIA (COTE), considered what changes to make to the
call for submittals and how this could shape how jurors evaluated
projects. All agreed on one fundamental concept: design awards
should be about more than aesthetics, reflecting a broader set of
design values. Broadening the definition of "design excellence" to
include sustainability was the targeted goal.
Small steps had been taken in prior years. Vivian Loftness, FAIA
(and former COTE chair), served on the jury in 2006 and was
concerned that even basic information needed to judge projects on
sustainability was not included. Many submissions did not have
north arrows, or any indication of their climate zone, and
sustainability was not a large part of the discussion. In 2007,
after Henry Siegel served on the jury, he noted that with the large
number of entries, typically over 500, the "first cut" was often
made based upon drawings, diagrams, and photographs alone; there
was limited time for jurors to read all the text. It was therefore
important to communicate sustainable concepts quickly and
graphically. New requirements were added: in addition to north
arrows and indication of climate zone, the entrants were asked to
include conceptual drawings or diagrams that explained their
approach to sustainability.
The committee felt that these changes had not gone far enough.
They wanted to ensure that entrants and jurors would view
sustainability as a design value and form driver, not just a
technical agenda. While the graphic exposition of sustainability
concepts was an important part of the this agenda, the submission
of performance metrics was seen as equally important, especially in
support of the AIA goal of 50% energy reduction by 2030. The group
decided that the 2030 target could not be a pre-requisite for
submission because it would eliminate design projects that had no
metrics available, such as memorials (Peter Eisenberg's Holocaust
Memorial in Berlin was a recent winner), interiors projects, and
small projects that might lack this kind of metric analysis. As a
result, the 2009 Honor Awards call for entries asks all entrants to
submit this important energy metric-with reference to EPA's Target
Finder tool-and this information will be located in a uniform way
for quick juror evaluation and comparison.
Other changes in the submission requirements have been made as
well. For both Architecture and Interior Architecture,
documentation is requested about specific material choices to
address the needs of indoor environmental quality and diversion of
materials from the waste stream.
Another subtle change for both Architecture and Interior
Architecture is that the quantity of interior images has been
increased to include images for each major functional space, as
well as at least one image of the building in use. While this may
not seem to be an obvious sustainability objective, this
requirement has been added to reinforce buildings not as objects,
but rather as integrated with their use and their occupants.
In addition to greening the honor awards at the national level,
incorporating sustainable criteria in local awards programs is
gathering momentum. AIA Portland, OR presents one award to
recognize a high level of both sustainability and design
excellence, and last year also initiated a CO2
metric in its separate design awards program. For the first
year of its existence the calculation was optional for submitters,
but going forward, the completion of the CO2 metric
is required for all submissions. San Francisco has a separate
Energy and Sustainability jury, honoring four projects in 2008,
with no overlap with the Excellence in Architecture awards.
Seattle will try their hand at it this year, considering jury
selection a major part of the process. In addition, in 2008,
Seattle instituted their own "Top Ten" awards program, an outgrowth
of their ten year old "What makes it Green" program, which
showcased sustainable projects in the region each year. This new
awards program, held in the spring, is meant to complement the
Honor Awards program held in the fall, deepening the discourse on
sustainable design within the community. Like the national program,
this awards program requires specific data and metrics in its
submission, with social justice as an additional category.
Jury composition and dynamics are critical to the outcome of any
awards program. Ensuring the selection of jurors who believe that
design and sustainability go hand in hand will support the goals of
elevating sustainability as an important value of evaluation. Find
out what your chapter is doing with its design awards, and make
sure that they are raising the bar for sustainability.
Of course, changes to submission requirements will be
meaningless if jurors ignore them. In a recent discussion about
design juries and jurors, an architect who has been on many design
juries voiced the opinion that once sustainability becomes part of
the building code, jurors will go back to being free to concentrate
on aesthetics only. In our view, this would again relegate
sustainability to a technical issue, one worthy of attention only
so far as code requires. As code requirements are raised (as they
undoubtedly will be), good designers will continue to up the ante
in making sustainable design strategies fundamental to design
aesthetics and designing buildings that perform far above
newer, more stringent code minimums.
What is next? The first step will be to evaluate the success of
this year's changes. Anne Schopf, FAIA (COD), who served on the
committee, will be serving on the 2009 jury Honor awards for
Architecture Jury and will have first hand experience with the
revised submission process. After her report back, decisions about
further metrics will be made. In addition, the Regional and Urban
Design awards program will be evaluated and recommendations will be
made for incorporating sustainable criteria into its submission
process.
Henry Siegel, FAIA, is co-founder of
Siegel & Strain, a firm in the Bay Area that has won multiple
Top Ten awards. Anne Schopf, FAIA, is Design Partner at Mahlum
Architects in Seattle, also a multiple Top Ten winner.
