AIA 2011 Convention: Thomas Friedman’s Keynote and Energy-Related Technologies

This year's annual AIA Convention was held last week in New Orleans, the city that will always be associated with Hurricane Katrina, the havoc it created, the flooding it caused, and FEMA's inadequate response to it which caused a near-complete breakdown of law and order in the city. I had not been to New Orleans before, and I welcomed the opportunity to get a chance to see this city which was considered a popular tourist destination before Katrina, and to find out how it was doing post-Katrina. Of course, I had no real basis for the before-after comparison myself, but I found no discernible effects of the disaster still lingering in the main areas of the city, including the downtown area near the Convention Center, the French Quarter, and the Garden District, which seemed to be very lively and packed with people. It is commendable that the AIA chose to host its 2011 Convention there, thereby providing its architectural attendees a chance to see first-hand a city that the AEC profession and the country at large had almost failed, but which was also a testament to the power of human resilience and how a city can make a comeback even after being almost swept away.

In addition to being held in New Orleans, this year's convention was also of special interest because it had Thomas Friedman as the keynote speaker on the opening day. Typically, the AIA keynote speakers are from within the AEC industry, or at least some related industry. Instead, Friedman was a New York Times syndicated columnist and author, undoubtedly a very celebrated one, but still, what advice and insights could he offer to a professional audience of architects? Plenty, as it turned out. The theme of this year's convention was sustainability, and this was a topic on which Friedman had several insights to offer, culled from his extensive and global experience of researching and writing  about a vast range of issues affecting the human experience including government, politics, technology, society, culture, and so on. In fact, he was able to provide a very useful, high-level perspective on issues that we typically do not hear or think about, and I found his talk extremely insightful and refreshingly different. He was also a terrific speaker, which lent added impact and dynamism to his presentation. This article, the first of two on the 2011 AIA Convention, captures the key points of his presentation and the sustainability-related technological developments that emerged from the show. The second article, to be published next week, will present the highlights of all the other technology solutions that were exhibited at the AIA 2011 Expo.

Thomas Friedman’s Keynote

Friedman’s keynote presentation at the AIA Convention was based on his book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America." It was originally published in 2008, but a new edition with updated and expanded content—dubbed “Release 2.0”— was published in 2009. (Given that it already 2011, maybe it’s time for Release 3.0?) While the book is intended for a general audience, the content of the book—and therefore Freidman’s presentation—was surprisingly very relevant to the architectural profession, as we have a large part to play in any future “green revolution.” No doubt, many factors that affect “greening” are beyond our control—politics (domestic as well as international), economics, government regulations and mandates, and so on. But the call for sustainable design in architectural practice has been getting increasingly strident for several years now, and it is very much the focus of most professional discussions held today, including those related to the use of technology. We have a growing plethora of software tools for energy analysis, green design, LEED certification, and so on. This is catching up on the product side as well—the AIA conference this year actually had a handout that listed all the “green products” that were being exhibited at the show. We also have tools such as GreenWizard (which will be discussed in more detail in the second section) that are developed specifically in order to assist architects to select and specify “greener” products in their design projects. In short, sustainable design is much very at the top of the architectural professional agenda these days, which is probably why the AIA decided to invite Thomas Friedman to present the opening keynote.

Friedman did start by cautioning us that he was not really motivated by environmental considerations in writing his book. Instead, he was concerned that America had “lost its groove,” and he wanted to focus on finding out ways to make it come back. He pointed out that the real source of the problem, the reason why we have arrived at this juncture where both the planet as well as the future of America is in peril, is that we have had a big values transition in this last generation: we have gone from “sustainable” values to “situational” values. We are treating both the market and Mother Nature with the same risk principles, which Friedman has humorously labeled as IBG (I’ll Be Gone) and YBG (You’ll Be Gone). This translates to a philosophy of “do what you want,” which will seriously impact the future of our planet. We urgently need to return to sustainable values to reverse this trend.

Friedman also briefly talked about each of the three main issues captured in the title of his book: “Hot, Flat, and Crowded.” Hot obviously relates to global warming, and while there are some who dispute this trend or challenge that it is caused by human activity, Friedman points out that the earth’s temperature is on an average 1º C higher than what it was 200 years ago, with the most rapid rise occurring in the last 30 years. A 1º C change may not sound like much, but it can hugely impact climate change, just as a small change in body temperature can be indicative of illness. The term flat refers to the rapidly increasingly globalization of the world and follows from Friedman’s earlier book “The World is Flat ” published in 2005. While globalization is inevitable and has many benefits including making different regions of the world more equitable, it also has the unfortunate consequence that people in all countries want to have a lifecycle similar to Americans—and the sad truth is that our planet was not designed for this many Americans. About 40 to 50 years ago, there were about 2.5 Americas, where “America” is seen as a unit indicating a certainly level of energy consumption by a country; now, with the improving economies and lifestyles in countries across the world, there are about 8 Americas. The planet cannot take this and is likely to blow up and burn, unless we can redefine the American lifestyle, and being Americans, it is we who should be taking this initiative. As far as the third term crowded is concerned, we only need to look at the population numbers to verify this: in 1830, there were 1 billion humans; in contrast, in 2008, there were 1 billion teens alone. While the term hot can be disputed by people, the realities of flat and crowded cannot be denied, and we urgently need to take some action before the earth gets too hot, too flat, and too crowded for human existence.

Friedman then went to discuss in more detail some of the biggest problems that we currently face. He talked about some of the cities he has visited such as Doha in Qatar and Dalian in China that are looking more and more like Manhattan every day, with entire fields of skyscrapers, most of them sporting glass facades, and with air-conditioning on throughout the day and night. This kind of development pattern is only like to continue to accelerate all over the developing world. How can we produce enough resources to satisfy this level of consumption? For those who believe that the answer is just to drill for more oil, Friedman had a very interesting statistic to share: in the Middle East, where most of the world’s oil resources are located, the price of oil moves in the opposite direction from the pace of freedom. For example, Lebanon is the only Arab country that has had freedom from the beginning, but it does not have a drop of oil. This is also true of Tunisia, where the recent uprising for democracy first started. It seems as though oil money, when in abundance, is used to suppress people; in contrast, places that have no oil rely instead on the creativity and intelligence of their people to do well, who in turn, thrive on intellectual and political freedom. It would be good to remember this “petro-dictatorship” the next time we complain about the price of gas. Other key challenges before us include the weird weather patterns caused by climate change (it doesn’t just cause the weather to just warm up everywhere, which would, for example, enable golf in Friedman’s home state of Minnesota in February—he admitted that would indeed be nice!); the energy poverty that currently affects 1.6 billion people (1 out of 4 people do not have electricity, a fact made more poignant by a photograph showing children studying in the night in a airport parking lot in Guinea, as that was the only place with light that was available to them); and loss of biodiversity on the planet (as evidenced by deforestation in places like the Amazon).

All of these problems have the same solution: a clean, reliable, and cheap source of energy. This is something that the US should take the initiative to develop or invent, rather than abdicate the responsibility for to some other country. The country is a critical juncture and we need to do something now—the payoff could not be higher. Inventing what is certain to be the next big global phenomenon would help the US to regain some of the respect it has lost lately, to get its “groove” back, and once again become the country known for innovation and leadership. What we really need is to have a “green” revolution. Many would claim that we are already having this, given that “green” seems to be the latest buzzword everywhere. But Friedman asked a thought-provoking question: Can we have a revolution where no one gets hurt, where there is no pain or upheaval? In the IT revolution that happened over the last two decades, the mantra was “change or die.” We need to have a similar attitude towards a green revolution. Unfortunately, there are no easy ways to save the earth; we cannot have change without some sacrifice, without paying the price for it. From that perspective, there is no real revolution going on…what we’re having is actually a party, a “green” party!

Needless to say, there are things that we can do, both within the architectural profession and as a country as a whole. Hopefully, every architectural firm will be motivated to be in the green design space, and all clients will demand green buildings. The government may have to impose laws and regulations and provide incentives to put in the right ecosystem in place for the development of innovative solutions to enable the green revolution. Perhaps, we could be like China just for a day to impose these laws and set up this ecosystem. Also, any green technologies that are invented should become cheaper once the manufacturing curve has been overcome, so that they can be implemented universally while still being economically viable. Eventually, in the long run, we need to make the word “green” disappear—it should simply become the normal way we do things. It should not be possible to build a non-green building or buy a non-green car. Only when “green” has become a way of life can we consider ourselves anywhere close to addressing the increasingly “hot, flat, and crowded” state of our planet.

Energy-Related Technologies

Getting back to the technology focus of AECbytes, here is an overview of some of the key energy-related technological developments that I had the opportunity to learn about at the AIA 2011 Expo. Bentley is coming out with two new tools: AECOsim Energy Simulator and AECOsim Compliance Manager. The AECOsim Energy Simulator is built on the powerful EnergyPlus simulation engine from the DOE (Department of Energy). The tool is designed to be used with any building model, not just those created with Bentley’s BIM applications. It can import models in DGN, DWG, DXF, as well as gbXML formats and convert them into energy performance simulation models. It also includes modeling tools for creating a model within the application if required. It can be used at the conceptual design stage and also includes capabilities for detailed analysis of final-stage models, enabling prediction of the annual energy consumption, cost, and CO2 emissions of a building design. It uses real world weather data and actual wall/partition/glazing construction data, and can take into account complex HVAC systems as well as the site context, including the impact of adjacent buildings, when evaluating the energy performance of a design. It has tools for ensuring compliance with both the ASHRAE and the CIBSE standards. Bentley’s other new product, the AECOsim Compliance Manager, is a browser-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for helping an AEC project team to efficiently collaborate and streamline the submission process for LEED certification of a “green” building project. It is designed to simplify, automate, and manage the complexities of LEED while maintaining data integrity, maximizing the project’s achievable LEED rating, and reducing administrative costs. Both these new tools, as well as other developments from Bentley, will be shared in more detail at its user conference scheduled to be held in Philadelphia next week.

Another key energy-related development that emerged at the AIA Expo was the near-completion of the integration between the space programming and planning capabilities of Trelligence’s Affinity with the energy analysis capabilities of IES’ VE-Gaia application, enabling the sustainable analysis of a project when it is in the earliest design stages. We saw the start of this integration last December at Autodesk University 2010. The integrated solution, expected to be available at the end of June, allows designers to quickly and easily evaluate design alternatives for efficiency in energy, lighting, and other criteria from directly within the Affinity desktop environment. The Affinity project information can also be transferred directly into the IES VE platform for access to the full range of analytical tools. The joint solution also includes the option to add access to the IES VE-Navigator for LEED, which is an automated LEED rating system credit assessment that covers daylighting, comfort, water and renewables.

And finally, I came across an interesting new solution called GreenWizard, which, as mentioned in the previous section, was developed specifically in order to assist architects and builders to select and specify “greener” products in their design projects. It works as a SaaS solution for simplifying the process of green product selection and management, providing a platform that can be used to compare and evaluate products from a centralized search engine and directly communicate with product manufacturers. It can also help in the LEED certification process by utilizing its proprietary credit assessment tools as a factor in the product selection process to optimize credits, manage product-related documentation, and ultimately automate the online submission component to LEED Online. (I learnt that 60-70% of LEED credits are related to building materials alone, since they impact not just sustainability but also health, safety, and efficiency.) GreenWizard seems promising with the momentum it has gained—it currently includes 110,000 products from over 1000 manufacturers, and its service is deployed by leading firms such as AECOM, HOK, and Turner Construction, with the total value of projects using it crossing $4.4 billion. GreenWizard is currently exploring BIM integration with Graphisoft (ArchiCAD) and Google (SketchUp). It already includes the BIM models of products as part of its service for those manufacturers who have provided them.

Conclusions

I was not able to attend the AIA Convention in person last year, but did cover it virtually (see AECbytes Newsletter #45). I was glad to be able to get back to attending the conference in person again—it is difficult to get the pulse of the industry and feel the energy and vibrancy of the attendees, presenters, and exhibitors, if you are not there in person. While the crowds were noticeably fewer than the heydays of the annual Convention (see the AECbytes Newsletter Index page for past coverage of all AIA shows starting from 2004), attendance was still quite good given that the economy has still not picked up. The Software Pavilion, however, had definitely shrunk, with the absence of several regulars such as AutoDesSys (developer of form.Z and bonzai3d), Deltek, ZCorp, InterSpec, and Transoft Solutions, as well as several other vendors who had exhibited at the AIA 2009 Convention. That said, it was still heartening to see several new products at the show, such as those covered in this article and others that will discussed next week, showing that the entrepreneurial spirit is still alive and well in the AEC technology industry.

Of course, the icing on the cake this year was the talk by Thomas Friedman, which was extremely engaging, thought-provoking, and inspiring, chock-full of insights related to sustainability and the world at large that you don’t otherwise get even if you are a regular reader of his newspaper columns. His book, which I bought at the AIA Bookstore at the Convention after his talk, does capture and expound upon a lot of the thinking and ideas that he shared, and I am finding it a very elucidating read.

Stay tuned for all the other technology updates and highlights from the AIA 2011 Expo to be published next week.

About the Author

Lachmi Khemlani is founder and editor of AECbytes. She has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC technology. She can be reached at lachmi@aecbytes.com.