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Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering: Architects and Engineers Work Together on Sustainable Building Design It used to be that an architectural engineer was invited to join a building team only after the design work was complete. The architect would put the finishing touches on the plans and then "throw them over the wall" to the engineer. No longer. The new trend in the building industry is to involve the engineer as part of the design team. That's especially good news for those interested in sustainable building design, which aims to minimize adverse impacts on the built and natural environments. "We start with how people feel about being inside a building," says John Zhai, a CU-Boulder assistant professor of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering since 2003. "Then we consider energy, and third, impact on the environment." With dual PhDs in fluid mechanics and building technology, Zhai brings special expertise in thermal comfort and indoor air quality to the building systems group in civil, environmental, and architectural engineering. "I focus on indoor environment quality because it makes people feel good, healthy, and productive, which resonates even more than energy costs." A study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with which Zhai has collaborated on developing an integrated building design tool, estimated the overall economic losses due to the poor indoor environments in U.S. commercial buildings to be between $40 billion and $160 billion per year in lost wages and productivity, administrative expenses, and health care costs. Zhai has developed a variety of simulation tools to study ventilation and indoor air quality. Among his current research projects is a study of how viruses are transferred within buildings and whether ventilation systems can be improved, such as through placement of supply vents near the floor instead of the ceiling to remove contaminated air with natural buoyancy forces, and through development of innovative personalized ventilation systems. Zhai also is leading a PhD student in the development of a rapid backward tracking method to identify sources of air pollution, including chemical and biological agents, based on limited sensor data. "The research is crucial to homeland security," Zhai says, "and the research results will help optimize sensor network distribution." Meanwhile, Zhai is interested in low-energy building design with particular focus on passive building technologies, such as natural ventilation, day-lighting, and solar shading. A significant amount of building energy can be saved with these "low-tech" design strategies, according to Zhai. Being able to provide engineering data to support a design decision and to show how building thermal systems can be improved to lower energy costs are part of the engineer's role on a design team. Some local sustainable building projects are providing real-world experience for students. Examples include the design of sustainable building systems for CU-Denver and Health Sciences Center's Sustainable Youth Zone project in Comm-erce City and the development of a sustainable pottery laboratory with wood-fired kilns in the city of Boulder. While the Commerce City project is shooting for the coveted U.S. Green Building Council's Platinum rating for environmentally friendly buildings with multiple funding sources, the Boulder Pottery Lab challenges students with a major renovation project that must be accomplished on a more limited budget. For more information visit http://spot.colorado.edu/~zhiqiang |
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