Architecture students and interns from across North America submitted work yesterday.
Architecture guided by the form of a leaf. Design concepts inspired by a rechargeable battery. A chronometer as a building metaphor. The house understood as an expression of the Greek principle of Estia. This is a sampling of the ideas and creativity embodied in the wave of design submissions we received from architecture students and interns yesterday. The group is competing in perFORM 2014, a competition created to demonstrate that high design and high performance building can be a dynamic duo.
Our feeling is that, rather than hindering high design, high performance building may become high design’s lifeline in coming decades. As the imperative for more and more efficient buildings increases this century, designers will need tools to navigate those waters while also achieving their programmatic and aesthetic goals. Advanced building science and accurate energy modeling provide those tools.
perFORM contestants employed a spreadsheet-based energy performance verification tool designed for the competition to approximate the kind of energy modeling that goes into high performance structures. Several participants supplemented this tool with other, real world tools to make the case for the performance of their designs.
Designs will now go to the perFORM jury and be judged on how “resourceful, replicable, and beautiful” they are.
We’ll unveil winners on Earth Day (April 22) at our Seattle office in the Bullitt Center. Stay tuned!
– Zack (Connect with me at +ZacharySemke)