July, 2007 Utah Style & Design

"Ecochamp"
by Jeremy Pugh

Like any architect David Brems takes his buildings seriously. It’s a serious business after all, crafting an object that will be around for decades, even centuries. But for Brems, a principal partner with the Salt Lake firm GSBS, it’s about more than aesthetics, design and form meeting function.

It’s about saving the world.

“The amount of energy it takes to manufacture and operate buildings is almost double the amount of energy that cars use,” he says. “So the possibility exists to turn global warming around simply by making buildings more energy efficient.”

Brems is an outspoken practitioner of sustainable architecture and a specialist in LEED design. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a voluntary national standard for developing high-performance, energy efficient buildings. His expertise is sought internationally and nationally and he is known for his ability to incorporate environmentally friendly design features into limited budgets. Locally, two marquee examples of his work are the Utah Olympic Oval and the Big D Construction Headquarters, both among the first in the nation to earn LEED certification. Brems recognizes the connection that buildings have with global warming. Poorly designed buildings waste energy in heating and cooling while much of this energy comes from coal-fired plants that add to the greenhouse effect. Meanwhile, the energy expended in the construction of badly designed buildings adds to that waste. This award-winning architect believes that buildings should be built to last, built smart, and that the solution to curbing and even rolling back global warming is within our reach—one building at a time.

“We will only be able to burn so much coal at one time and keep the Earth in balance,” he says. “And that goes for how we use every natural resource. Everything has limits. We can operate within those limits but we need to recognize what they are. Buildings that can operate within those limits will become the most valuable.”

His roots in sustainable design and architecture took hold back in the 1970s amid oil embargos and energy crisis. It’s taken 30 years for the architects trained in the 1970s to ascend to prominence in the field and Brems has become known as a pioneer in the realm of sustainable design, exorcising inefficient design from the system. Ironically, much of what Brems deems “good design” was widely practiced in the United States prior to the 1950s.

“It used to be that buildings were designed in harmony with the environment they were designed in,” he says. “Sunlight was the primary source of light, the thickness of buildings helped with heating and cooling. They were designed to harvest natural light and built more out of natural materials found in the area. With the era of cheap energy and fluorescent lights, a couple of generations of architects and engineers never learned how to properly design a building. So here we are, relearning all of this.” 

Currently Brems is sits on the American Institute of Architects committee on design, The AIA bestows the coveted National Honor awards on superlative projects. Brems is working to ensure that sustainability is a prime requisite for earning what amounts to an Oscar in the field. Beyond that, Brems is working to hone design standards and demonstrate that energy efficient design need not be out of reach. One day he hopes that every building will be labeled with the some equivalent of a “miles per gallon” rating easily found on cars.

“We’re trying to define something very simple, a standard number you can apply to houses and buildings,” he says. “We’re going to find out that most buildings get like two miles per gallon.”

According to Brems, green building is not something that has to be done at the expense of economic growth. In fact, LEED certified buildings pay owners back in operational costs that, over a building’s lifetime, certainly exceed construction costs. And really, Brems points out, there will be no economy to grow if the global warming continues unabated.

“We’re living on borrowed time right now, this needs to be done on a national scale and an international scale,” Brems says. “The U.S. government ought to be a leader in how to design buildings that don’t damage the environment and then we can show the rest of the world how it can be done. It’s a skill we could export. Fossil fuels are running out,” he says. “They amount to a blip in time. Here we get all this low-cost energy to make a civilization and wouldn’t it be sad if we ruined our Earth doing it?”

DECISIONS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE

• Buy or build a LEED certified home. Brems claims up front costs will be more than recouped in energy savings.


• If you’re building, make sure your home is oriented properly to harvest sunlight for heat and lighting. According to Brems, southern facing buildings with large window banks are essential to green building. Southern sun is easy to control with small overhangs.


• Plant trees on the east and west sides of your home. This shades you from the low-angle sun that plays havoc with heating and cooling.


• Install operable, double-paned windows. Opening windows at night to release heat is the best way to reduce the temperature in your home. Strategic use of fans can help exhaust the home further keeping your air conditioner quiet for all but the hottest summer nights.


• Upgrade to high performance windows that selectively allow different wavelengths of light to pass through and reject others. This can help with heating use in the winter especially by trapping the warming wavelengths of light in your home.


• Insulate your house property. Most of the wasted energy in heating and cooling seeps out through walls and roofs.


• Install high-efficiency heating and cooling systems. New systems are very efficient and major advances have been made especially on the cooling end. You can also join Rocky Mountain Powers demand-side program. The power company takes control of your cooling system and cycles it on and off during peak demand hours and gives you a better rate on your bill.