from the ground up - The Tyee

Airtight buildings can also create mold, where moistureproduced by students has nowhere to escape andinstead collects on, and sometimes in, the cold pointsof walls.“If it’s really cold outdoors, you could have a coldpoint on the inside, or in the middle of a wall, and youcould easily take room moisture and it finds its dewpoint and condenses and those surfaces,” says VivianLoftness, a professor of architecture at Carnegie MellonUniversity.“And the same is true in your hot, humid climatesfrom the outside: you air condition the building, ifyou don’t manage the thermal bridges, you could havethe moisture outside the building actually condensingin the walls, which then will breed mold and createlong term issues.”Dickens is not airtight: each classroom has windowsthat open, and the cafeteria features garage doors thatroll up in order to incorporate more light and air intothe space during the warmer months.“Access to outside air is another feature that we rewardthrough LEED. It also allows your occupants tocontrol the environment, so if I feel stuffy I can justopen a window,” says Holt.Keep it quietOne of the issues with open-concept spaces such asthe Dickens cafeteria, where natural airflow replacesthe need for mechanical systems, is acoustics. Whilecafeterias are not necessarily quiet places, other greenbuildings have found their open spaces are an acousticalnightmare for teachers and students.“Because they have open airways in order to allownatural ventilation, as well as concrete floors, a lot ofgreen buildings, if you combine those with leathershoes, you get a real acoustic problem,” Robinsontold The Tyee.“And so in general green buildings have been designedin ways to maximize environmental benefitsand not enough attention, I believe, has been spent onthe human dimension.”Not only are noisy classrooms disruptive for learning,but also they can create health problems for studentsand teachers who have to strain their voices to beheard.“Teachers trying to overcome outdoor noise willproject their voice at a higher level, and teacher healthwas being compromised -- they were getting hoarse,”says Loftness.“And as soon as you provide better acoustic environmentsteachers don’t have to project their voices ashard and those health problems are greatly reduced.”Loftness suggests sustainable building designers gobeyond standard LEED by combining the measurementwith other green building standards, such asASHRAE or CHPS, in order to maximize acoustics,energy savings and the use of natural light.“Even though the standard gives you the singlecheckbox for daylight, and one checkbox for naturalventilation, I think we have to actually take a far moredramatic and concerted effort to increase the numberof checkboxes, whether through regional credits orthrough just a local commitment,” she says.‘Buildings should make people’s quality of life better’Much of the research on the benefits of green schoolsis still in its infancy, less than 10 years old, but Robinsonhopes to further the field with the completion ofthe Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability(CIRS) building on the UBC Vancouver campus laterthis year. Billed as the greenest building in NorthAmerica, with its own waste treatment system onsite,a combination of solar and geothermal heat, and awater system based on rainfall collection, it will alsoserve as a living laboratory, where inhabitants aremonitored for their happiness, health and productivity.“We think the old sustainability agenda was being lessbad, just reducing damage. The new sustainabilityagenda is being net positive, both environmentallyand in terms of human quality of life,” says Robinson.“So the buildings should make the environment better,and the buildings should make people’s quality of lifebetter.”57