PAYETTE at 2023 ACSA/AIA Intersections Research Conference: Material Economies

PAYETTE People Melanie Silver, Olivia Humphrey, Endian Xu, Sahithi Datla and Andrea Love recently presented at the ACSA/AIA Intersections Research Conference: Material Economies. It was an intimate conference full of passionate experts with inspiring keynote speakers. The setting in the John W. Olver Design Building at UMass Amherst, a building that uses innovative mass timber construction, set the stage for the conference topics of a deep dive on materials regarding embodied carbon, material health, circularity, biogenic materials and innovation.

The presentations were all grouped into panels with three to four presentations with a discussion between presenters at the end. PAYETTE participated in three different panels:

• Expanding Life Cycle Assessment:
  • The Missing Piece: Embodied Carbon and Health in Interiors, a Case Study with
    Melanie Silver & Olivia Humphrey
• Decarbonization:
  • Early Incorporation of Embodied Carbon Information for Total Building Decarbonization
    Andrea Love with Daniel Sesil from LERA Consulting Structural Engineers
• Case Studies in Materiality:
  • Rethinking Material Reuse: A Case Study on Lab Retrofit
    Lakshmi Sahithi Datla, Endian Xu

Melanie and Olivia kicked off Friday’s sessions with their presentation focusing on how research conducted to create Kaleidoscope, PAYETTE’s Embodied Carbon Design Tool, informed partition assemblies, flooring and ceiling material choices for the Harvard Kempner Institute project, a 20,000 SF fit-out of a portion of the 6^th floor of the Harvard Science and Engineering Complex to fit the needs of the artificial intelligence research institute. The research that contributed to Kaleidoscope impacted how the team chose materials during the design phase, and how the team has been advocating for low carbon materials during construction. The material choices for Kempner resulted in an overall carbon reduction of 39% from the industry standard baseline! The biggest material contributors to this reduction include ultra-lightweight, environmentally preferred gypsum board, recycled glass wool insulation, embossed studs, FSC-certified (sustainably sourced) wood, 100% recycled nylon carpet with bio-based backing and PET felt baffle ceilings.

What became apparent through our analysis was the importance of addressing embodied carbon of fit-out projects. While the Kempner Institute only constitutes 6% of the SEC building’s square footage, the embodied carbon impact over projected renovations is almost equal to the core and shell. Moreover, Kempner is not the only fit-out that has occurred within the SEC in the past few years. Since multiple interior fit outs can occur frequently throughout a building’s average lifespan of 60 years, it is even more critical that we drive interior projects’ carbon down as much as possible if we are to achieve net zero emission goals.

Andrea Love presented with LERA Structural Engineers, highlighting an integrated process of early carbon modeling for the Sustainable Engineering Laboratories Building currently in design at UMass Amherst. The project‘s ambitious goals around decarbonization (operational and embodied) make incorporating analysis early into the a key factor in achieving these goals. Early analysis tools including EPIC and Kaleidoscope were utilized, then parametric explorations of structural systems and whole building life cycle assessments with Tally were conducted and informed the evolution of the design.

Sahithi and Endian wrapped up the conference with research on 60 Oxford that focuses on learning from the project to see how circular economy practice can be integrated into more projects in the future. Embodied carbon has become a crucial way for designers to reduce carbon emissions and reuse is an effective way to do so because it reduces raw material consumption.

For the 60 Oxford project, PAYETTE’s design team took on the Living Building Challenge (Material Petal) and incorporated reuse as a project goal. Thorough analysis and interviews were conducted on site with contractors and designers to discuss best practices to maximize reuse potential for building materials in renovation projects.

Six challenges and solutions were presented based on project research, diving into how we can solve existing issues with various difficulty levels and adapt to contingencies. Our research shows that a more collaborative framework and early negotiation are needed to overcome existing challenges and facilitate material reuse.