The AIA is redefining what we refer to as great design in this age of climate action. With the Framework for Design Excellence design awards are not just a beauty contest. To be sure, it’s both a challenge and an opportunity: a challenge for architects to embrace the principles we’ve known since we were in school and an opportunity to tell the stories already embedded in our work.
I recently had the pleasure of discussing the topic with my friend Greg Mella, the OG in LEED platinum design, in a presentation for the AIA|DC. We recounted how we applied the ten Framework principles in a recent jury for the San Diego chapter AIA. Here are some of my own notes:
10 ways to win - The Framework principles cover a range of issues, not just sustainability but also design for resilience, economy, and equity. Not barriers, they are ten very clear directions for architects in design as well as in awards submission mode.
10 ways to learn – Each principle provides an opportunity to learn more about what we’re designing… how much energy does the building use? Site v. Source EUI? How well does it serve the occupants? Is it an efficient use of space? These questions become part of the feedback loop for a good design process.
The framework is not a new set of criteria for design excellence as much as it is a new way of looking at what still matters. Great architecture is still found in form + function, materiality, the use of light, and the artful ways we solve for program. Seen through this new lens they may become climatically responsive design, rapidly renewable resources, daylighting, and long life/loose fit.
The new framework is not easy, but then neither is design excellence in the practice of architecture. There is a reason we call it practice.