Integrated Design Process

There’s a lot of talk about green building these days, and more and more planners are realizing that with the new benefits of eco friendly design, there’s no reason not to take the path toward green construction.  But builders looking for “green building codes” might have a hard time: the rapid rise of this new trend left little room for detailed guidance for those who want to practice ecological construction. One tool that green builders can use is what some would call an “Integrated Process”.  What this means is basically that steps of planning and building are approached much more on a comprehensive and versatile basis, rather than in what builders have called the “Linear Approach” taken in past eras. When other Americans times produced housing booms, the linear approach allowed for quick ramp-up times for large housing developments and other projects.  But the country has now felt the sting of the over-application of linear models: lack of planning has left our landscape cluttered with unsustainable and often weakly constructed buildings. So how does a builder utilize an integrated approach?  A lot of the change is toward a more thoughtful planning and building process that includes: •    communication between various contractors adding features to a building •    collaborative brainstorming for maximizing each building aspect •    a process that can change quickly as needed •    oversight and use of data for adapting features as needed This and other versatility practices produce buildings that last longer, conserve more energy, promote public health, and enable builders and owners to claim a track record of good stewardship that they can bank on in the long run.  It’s time to get on the bandwagon, or be left out of one of the biggest and most lasting new trends in construction!   Look for more models on the integrated approach from public state and local agencies that realize the public benefits of teaching these practices to the people who chart our nation’s future.