A quick refresher, what is cob construction?

What’s changed, what’s the update?

What can you do to help push Cob further?

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After attending the International Mass Timber Conference this past March, and in particular a session entitled: Sustainable Wood from Sustainable Forests with Mike Cloughsey the Director of Forestry with the Oregon Forest Research Institute, there appeared two major takeaways concerning forest management and public perception.

For architects and engineers to be comfortable using wood products at the scale of mass timber, they must not only understand the benefits of wood as a material, but also the principles of sustainable forest management and the methods of regulations and forest certification. Focusing first on sustainable principles of forest management, the stated goal is “managing forests to create present and future benefits while meeting present and future needs.” These needs are ecological, economic, and social. Underneath this banner of Stewardship, there are four S’s which encapsulate the benefits of proper management:

1. Sequester: Forests sequester carbon. According to the 2021 International Mass Timber Report, in the United States alone, forests store more than 14 billion metric tons of carbon (excluding Alaska and Hawaii).
2. Store: Wood products store carbon. In the Pacific Northwest roughly 1,900 pounds of carbon or carbon equivalent is stored per cubic meter of lumber produced (2021 Mass Timber Report).
3. Substitute: Wood is a clean substitute to other common building materials like steel and concrete, which have a higher carbon output in their creation and don’t store any carbon during their life cycle.
4. Sustain: Ensuring long-term forests allows for present and future generations to enjoy and benefit from timber.

While architects and engineers intimately familiar with the construction process may understand the benefits of timber, there are still public misconceptions about the use of wood. Forest regulation and certification go hand in hand with clearing misconceptions and fostering transparency. Trees are a renewable building material, but one of the biggest barriers to market-wide use of timber is the idea that trees should be preserved at all costs. Proper forest management balances harvest and growth, to avoid becoming forest-mining. The current difficulty is overcoming the assumption that cutting any tree down is a bad thing. A similar issue of public perception involves techniques like clear-cutting. Trees like Douglas Firs grow best in even-aged stands and practices like clear cutting mimic natural growth after a forest fire. While this may seem damaging at first, sustainable management requires planting seedlings after this logging. Lastly, instituted forest certification builds trust and accountability in both timber producers and consumers within the construction industry.

Three major forest certification programs stand out in the Pacific Northwest and have various labels which are applied to lumber through adherence to principles concerning forest retention, harvest size, and use of chemicals. The numbers for these certifications were provided by Mike Cloughesy with the Oregon Forest Resources Institute.

• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) an international program certifying 35 million acres in U.S. and 20,000 in OR
• Sustainable Forestry Initiative, a US and Canada program certifying 67 million acres and 3.8 million in OR
• American Tree Farm System, a US Only program certifying 28 million acres and 700,000 in OR

If mass timber is to take its place as a renewable, safe, and aesthetic material in the public eye, the way forward is advocating and understanding forestry management principles and the certification of harvest in forests that are so beloved and important to their communities.

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The Portland Building.

Such an iconic a building that it is named after our city. It’s not the Graves Building, the Postmodern Building, or even the Portlandia Building… it is The Portland Building. Over the years, nearly 30 since it was first unveiled and occupied, there have been numerous articles and discussions around this landmark. Love it or loathe it, the style is completely unique, and it is a flagship in the seas of architectural history.

How did the building come to be?

Back in 1979, Michael Graves won a design competition to create one of America’s first major works of Postmodern architecture. There were references to and exaggerations of historical elements, prominent decorative flourishes abound – columns, keystones, and garland. The color palette stood in stark contrast to the more common grey cityscape of concrete, colors that delighted as often as they offended; teal, salmon, and cream being the most dominate tones.

In 1982 the Portland Building opened, with the addition of the Portlandia statue, and quickly became an architectural icon. In May 1983, the building won an American Institute of Architects honor award. However, the honeymoon phase was brief. Shortly after opening, structural flaws began to rear themselves, from dark work areas, to drafts, and a notoriously leaky facade. By 1990, there was already a remodel underway. Many began to call for the building to be demolished and replaced. In October of 2009, Travel + Leisure magazine called the Portland Building “one of the most hated buildings in America”. However, in 2011, local preservation architect Peter Meijer successfully petitioned for the building to be added to the National Register of Historic places. Even so, while the building had been officially recognized and registered, by 2014 there was still serious consideration by City officials for the building to be demolished. Preservation prevailed and by 2016 there was a multi-million-dollar renovation underway. It was to be a full and thorough overhaul to maintain the historical relevance of the building, and our city of Portland skyline, while also creating a public building that would be seismically upgraded, and free of those years-long ever persistent leak issues, and a healthier work environment in general. The project outlined improvements to the efficiency and functionality of the workplace, including replacing drafts and dark shadows with light filled and comfortable spaces in each of the 15 stories, along with other mechanical, electrical, and plumbing system upgrades.

In 2016, Convergence Architecture was by all accounts, still a new architecture firm.

With a staff of five, we were only seven years into business, and so we were elated to join the Portland Building Reconstruction Project alongside such heavyweights as DLR Group and Howard S. Wright Construction, among others. The project was a progressive design-build effort, with many in doubt and disbelief from the onset, however the team prevailed in executing an update that, when previewed in Autumn 2019, wowed audiences and exceeded expectations. The project wrapped a year earlier than expected, and under-budget, without sacrificing any of the project goals. In fact, through the DLR design process many figurative and literal walls between city bureaus were broken down, making way for better collaboration and efficiency within city government. As anyone in design or construction can tell you, creating a perfect balance of on time, on budget, and well-built is nearly impossible. Our team fully integrated with the larger team, working directly and collaboratively with the architect of record and contractor to deliver a successful project for the City of Portland. It is with great pride that we can include The Portland Building in our project portfolio.

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I thought we would explore some ideas about crossing disciplines to better understand the world as a whole. As we already know, architecture plays a major roll in our lives. It impacts our health and the climate of our planet. The ideas behind Bioarchitecture look to balance and uplift our lives through better understanding of the biological world that we live in and the role that we play in (and with) that world. Bioarchitecture is a combination of sustainable design and biophilia – It engages both disciplines to inspire better architecture.

bioarchitecture. Noun. (plural bioarchitectures)
The design and construction of buildings in an ecologically-friendly manner. The design and construction of buildings that reflect structures found in nature.

“As nature uses shape to hold charge or life force, it makes complete sense to use nature’s shapes and proportions for the shape of our spaces and buildings. In terms of architecture and design of space, I believe that by creating spaces that are based on the pure principles of natural design we provide a sacred environment that can nurture our bodies, minds and spirits. We can literally design to raise the vibration of the inhabitants. We can use our quantum consciousness to create the space, and to clear it of any stresses that do not serve life.” – Michael Rice

“This history, however, is largely a conceptual one, drawing on the metaphors, knowledge structures, and imagery of biology but rarely engaging the actual research protocols of biology or understanding buildings as living biological objects,” – David Benjamin

Additional links for further reading:

• https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/biology-and-architecture
• http://www.theimploder.com/products/other-developments-fractal-technology/bio-architecture 

Placecraft provides alternative construction and is located right here in our neighborhood. If you have an idea for a project and are looking for a builder, we recommend reaching out to them!

The post Bioarchitecture – An Introduction appeared first on Convergence Architecture.

In October 2019, I was able to attend an event at the AIA of Portland called: “Making the Financial Case for Net Zero”. The event was a part of Sustainable Building Week 2019 and featured a number of speakers, each experts in their fields.  It’s always difficult to succinctly summarize events like these, because there is just so much information given and everyone has different things that they feel more drawn to or that are bigger priorities to them. That being said, I’ll do my best to share my thoughts and what I learned from this talk.

The first speaker was Matt Hyder, an Energy Consultant at RWDI. Matt began by discussing how buildings that are constructed today will be in use as we begin to experience more and more effects of climate change in the next 50+ years. He spoke of mitigation methods, the Energy Code, Net Zero, and Conservation. He suggested planning ahead, we need to adapt to/ prepare for the changing climate zones. For instance, Portland is currently a 4C climate (Mixed Marine) but 50 years from now, it will be a 3A climate (Warm Humid) – as a reference point, Atlanta, GA and Dallas, TX are both 3A climates now. For the purposes of this study, Matt and his team ran scenarios of the Kellogg School project, and did a model comparison. Option one: Build a High Performance Passive system. Option two: Build a High Performance Active system.

I interpreted this data as to say, you don’t need to spend large amounts on all of the bells and whistles of a high tech mechanical system. A well done passive building can be just as (if not more) effective in heating and cooling. All buildings require the basics of walls, windows and insulation. By choosing high quality and high performance versions of these pieces, the client will save on energy and operating costs in the long term – for the life of the structure.

The next speaker was Nicole Holt of SERA Architects, she volunteers with Zero Energy Ready Oregon. Zero Energy Ready Oregon (ZERO) is comprised of volunteers from 32 organizations, and was created in response to Executive Order 17-20, which has energy efficiency standard requirements to be in place by 2023. ZERO creates educational and communication tool kits, makes Policy and Energy Code recommendations, and works on Zero Energy design funding.

The numbers are pretty compelling. Clearly, if you have a Zero Energy home, you may feel like you’re spending a lot upfront, but that initial investment will more than pay for itself in cost savings in under 15 years… better yet, it’s not as if the savings expire, the ROI continues on for the life of the home. Note: Zero Energy Homes are not just new construction, existing homes can be retrofitted to be Net Zero.

Speaking of retrofitting, the next speaker was Kevin Bates, of Sharp Development. Kevin has made quite the splash down in California, taking typical 1960’s warehouse buildings and turning them into energy saving powerhouses.

Kevin is a developer and is interested in keeping his costs low and seeing strong ROI. He’s found great success in converting buildings to Net Zero & Carbon Neutral. Kevin advised the group, “Don’t underestimate the value of doing the right thing, for the right reasons, the right way.”

Finally, ML Vidas of Vidas Architecture spoke. To be honest, she didn’t speak much to the financial case of building to Net Zero, but she was inspiring and brought real heart to why we do what we do. ML spoke at length about the Desert Rain House which is a project that she worked on in Bend, OR. The Desert Rain House is Living Building Certified and an excellent case study of what buildings have the potential to do and to be.

In all, the evening was incredibly informative and inspiring. The speakers were complimentary of one another, each offering their unique perspectives on what it means to build and retrofit Net Zero buildings and why we ought to speak to our clients and peers about this opportunity more often. For every concern about or reason not to build in this way, there’s a logical and compelling reason to build this way. Architecture and the built environment can be very damaging to our ecosystem and to the people who live and work in the spaces that we build. Creating places that respond to the climate and are inviting, comfortable and profitable seems like the best path forward.

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Whether you’re upgrading the roof of your shed, or working on a large scale commercial project- Can you have your garden roof and your warranty protection, too?

For years the standard critiques of eco-roof systems have been centered on a few issues:

• How do they perform?
• What about maintenance?
• What about leaks?

Most architects have heard all or some of these if they’ve spent any time talking about eco-roofs with potential clients or the general public. If you’re a homeowner who’s been curious about eco-roofs, these questions may have crossed your mind as well.

On a trip to Los Angeles,  I saw the L.A. Metro Division 13 Bus Operations and Maintenance facilities green roof system. I asked out loud, “I wonder what they used for the membrane.” I just happened to be standing next to a colleague of ours from Stantec, who was Project Architect for Division 13. “Oh, it’s a Hydrotech system.” He went on to explain that Hydrotech was able to warrant the system, providing LA Metro transit enough assurances that it would perform. He explained that Hydrotech warranted the assembly provided you met their requirements and used their components, all the way up through the growing media and the plants. If you’re working on a residential project, you might find that hiring a professional to build your eco-roof will offer you the same level of component capability and a warranty.

Garden Roof Assembly from Hydrotech

What should you consider when deciding whether or not to install an eco-roof? Every project, whether big or small, has its list of pros and cons. Here are some points to alleviate eco-roof concerns:

• Aesthetics: The benefit of being surrounded by garden-like settings.
• Longevity: Properly installed green roofs can double the life expectancy of a membrane as they tend to protect the membrane from UV and from temperature extremes.
• Cost: The installation costs are increased because of the added components. The long-term maintenance costs are reduced because of the protection from UV and temperature extremes. Energy savings result from the insulating effect of a green roof. The GSA puts the “payback” for a green roof at approximately 6.2 years for a 40 year green roof, vs a 17 year conventional roof (GSA Green Roof Benefits and Challenges, p. ii).
• Storm-water Management: For building owners with storm-water management concerns, green roofs are a way to help mitigate the effects of storm-water. From Multnomah County, eco-roofs offer “Mitigation of storm water runoff which causes flooding, increased erosion, and which may result in raw sewage that is discharged directly into our rivers.  Eco-roofs can absorb storm-water and release it slowly over a period of several hours.  Green roof systems have been shown to retain 60-100% of the storm-water they receive”

Fun fact: According to the fall 2019 Living Architecture Monitor, in 2015 Portland had a population of 570,000 and a total area of Green Roofs of 157,989 square meters. This put us above Copenhagen, Singapore, Toronto and Chicago for our area of eco-roofs per inhabitant.

For More Green Roof Information, visit:

https://www.hydrotechusa.com/assemblies/garden-roof-assembly (technical information, more often for a commercial application)

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bes/44422 (general eco-roof information from the City of Portland)

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bes/article/492807 (A DIY guide for those wanting to create an eco-roof on their own)

Placecraft provides alternative construction and is located right here in our neighborhood. If you have an idea for a project and are looking for a builder, we recommend reaching out to them!

The post An Eco-roof and a Warranty Protection appeared first on Convergence Architecture.

The post Hempcrete and a Code Appeal appeared first on Convergence Architecture.

Hempcrete, or hemp-lime, is a building insulation material made of hemp bio-fiber (often called hemp hurd or shiv), water, and lime. Blended together, the lime coats all parts of the shiv and is activated by the water, resulting in a chemical bonding reaction. Theoretically, many types of cellulose fiber could be used, but hemp has some advantages over lots of other potential choices, prominent among them being that hemp grows quickly and easily and has very strong fibers.

Image sourced from: Essential Hempcrete Construction by Chris Magwood

Hemp, being essentially a different strain of the same cannabis sativa that is only legal in certain jurisdictions, but it doesn’t have the psychoactive capabilities of that one that people will line up at shops to buy. Industrial hemp was only legalized finally in the 2018 Farm Bill in the United States, so a lot of what has been done with industrial hemp up until now has taken place in the shadow of an 80-year prohibition.

Click here to watch a short video of hemp being harvested.

But why would someone want to build with hemp? Well, there are some advantages.

• Hempcrete is a nontoxic material, and so those with sensitivities to VOCs or off-gassing from synthetic materials can avoid such exposures.
• Hempcrete has thermal performance benefits, acting as both insulation and as thermal mass. The air pockets give it insulating qualities, and the density of the lime binder gives it the thermal mass. This allows hempcrete to act as something of a thermal “battery,” storing heat when the ambient air is warm and releasing it back when the ambient temperatures drop.
• Hempcrete can help spark new industries including growing, processing, construction, and installation. Hempcrete is a possibility for economically depressed areas to jump-start employment and provide both a local resource and an industry that could bring money from surrounding areas.

As with any building material, there are code considerations. Hempcrete, being essentially recently legalized and being relatively new, is not in either of the more popular building codes in the U.S., the International Residential Code (IRC) or the International Building Code (IBC).

Fortunately, building codes include provisions for considering other materials. Usually, the applicant must show that the performance criteria for the building are being met by that material are being met, things like structural performance, thermal performance, and fire resistance.

Structural is easily handled in a framed structure with hempcrete in the spaces between the framing. Lots of code language is written for framed structures and it is very likely a prescriptive path or engineered wooden structure would be permitted without much hassle.

Image sourced from: Essential Hempcrete Construction by Chris Magwood

For other considerations, it is incumbent upon the applicant to furnish supporting documents. These can vary by jurisdiction and even by plans examiner, but by addressing the concerns in an affirmative manner can go a long way toward winning approval. Some possible items that may help this are:

• Examples of past performance: This could include prior case studies or examples, with previously approved projects in the same jurisdiction often being the most convincing.
• Testing: Data from tests, particularly independent tests performed using code-recognized standards like ASTM.
• A/E stamps: Design professionals’ stamps carry weight.

Other practical concerns beyond the strictly code related would include acoustics and moisture.

A separation wall between units consisting of two 6” hempcrete walls with a 3” space between then was tested in the UK offering a sound reduction of 57 to 58 dB between units.

Image sourced from: Essential Hempcrete Construction by Chris Magwood

Moisture is handled a bit differently than the current focus on vapor barrier systems. Hempcrete can maintain its integrity with some moisture content, and hemp hurds are able to contain a lot of moisture during humid conditions and release it when it is drier. The lime in hempcrete is inherently mold-resistant even when temperature and humidity would encourage mold in other insulation materials. For this reason, a hempcrete wall assembly needs to be allowed to breathe.

Much more work has been done with hemp in other countries that have not shared the same tight restrictions on industrial hemp. For more code-approved structures to be built with hempcrete, it’s going to take a lift of many things all at once, from more independent lab tests and more industry standards and more case studies and built history. It’s a lot of things that have to happen together to make hempcrete more mainstream, but that’s what it can take after an 80-year ban.

Further reading:

• The Hempcrete Book: Designing and Building with Hemp-Lime by William Stanwix and Alex Sparrow
• Essential Hempcrete Construction by Chris Magwood

Placecraft provides alternative construction and is located right here in our neighborhood. If you have an idea for a project and are looking for a builder, we recommend reaching out to them!

The post What is Hempcrete? …Is it even legal? appeared first on Convergence Architecture.

As you know and if you don’t let me tell you, on November 11th of 2017 my buddy and colleague Adam and I volunteered and helped raise a timber frame for the Mt Angel Abbey Benedictine Brewery with the organized guidance of New Energy Works Timberframing. Also helping out were local timberframers from the surrounding area and Trillium Dell, an Illinois company helping lead and educate the way for timberframers, not to mention the mass of community that came out to lend some muscle as well.

About one year later on December 1st of 2019 we were invited back to see the finished building all sealed and cladded for our human creature comforts with a patio overlooking the hops fields below as mentioned in my original blog on this topic. Inside, you find a row of windows with seating, opening the interior view out to the same hops field that can be viewed from the patio. The tap bar sits between you with that gorgeous view and the room where all the magic happens, the brewery. After snacks and complimentary beer for our efforts, Benedictine Father and Master Brewer Martin Grassel, led us through a tour and talk on the inner workings of the brewery that we all helped build. It was a great turn out and many of the friends we made the year before were there helping christen and reconnect a sacred bond between human, craft, and beer! Salud!

http://newenergyworks.com/galleries/mass-timber-projects

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