News

The College of Built Environment, Integrated Design Lab’s research team wins $1.2 million to radically reduce how new hospital designs use energy.

June 19, 2010

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) announced on June 18th, 2010 that University of Washington researchers from the College of Built Environments (BE), Department of Architecture’s Integrated Design Lab will lead a team of Lab researchers and building industry professionals including; SOLARC Engineering, the architectural firm NBBJ and TBD Cost Consultants, in receiving a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (US. DOE.) to extend a model that reduces hospital energy use by 60 percent. The work of the UW team reflects National leadership in design integration and energy efficiency, and reflects a sea change in the integrated design of hospital and healthcare facilities for radically higher performance.

Common current practice in the building industry is to create a building that is energy efficient, a bit better than the minimum performance required by our energy code. Now an advanced, leading-edge goal is to approach net-zero: the point at which the structure greatly reduces its energy demand and then creates as much energy as this radically-efficient building uses.

"Hospitals and healthcare facilities are second only to fast-food restaurants in energy consumption. They consume approximately 4 percent of all energy used in the U.S., so lowering the amount is very important," said Joel Loveland, a Professor of Architecture who directs the Integrated Design Lab at the university. He and Heather Burpee, a UW Research Associate in Architecture, lead Target 100, which is named for an energy use index (EUI), much like the miles per gallon (MPG) rating of your automobile, and reflects the goal of significantly increasing energy efficiency. Together with experts who aided the initial research, Loveland and Burpee will model energy strategies for hospitals in seven cities of the U.S. representing the seven major US. DOE. national climate zones.

For further information, download the press release.