My first Publication Arup_BuildingDesign2020_v2 | Page 36

Seattle’s Bullitt Center was touted as the
“greenest commercial building in the world”
upon its opening in 2012. Energy and carbon
neutral, the building includes independent
water and sewage processing facilities and
was constructed entirely without the use
of toxic substances.
The 52,000 sqft Bullitt Center is energy
and carbon neutral and includes independent
water and sewage processing facilities,
rainwater collection and geothermal wells. All
of the building’s lumber is certified to Forest
Stewardship Council standards, and all of
the sealants, coatings and materials used in
construction are certified nontoxic. The project
raised the bar for the performance of urban
office buildings through a synthesis of passive
design principles and technologies aimed to
reduce loads, recycle waste streams, generate
energy, and create a beautiful and healthy
work environment.
Location / Business: Seattle, WA.
The Miller Hull Partnership for commercial
use.
Urbanisation
In 2007, one hundred invited architects
submitted entries to a masterplan project
designed to build a 300,000-resident city from
scratch in Inner Mongolia. After seven years
and $1B of investment, Ordos is a ghost town
where 28,000 residents wander through a
collection of vacant buildings and incomplete
luxury developments.
Ordos represents a particular challenge
to the building design industry, namely to
create achievable, scalable masterplans with
an eye to minimizing waste and maximizing
utility in emerging economies where growth
pressure is considerable. A future defined by
rapid urbanisation will require planners and
building designers who can pair efficiency
and enthusiasm with sensitivity and nuance,
ensuring that designs are truly reflective of
social needs, demographic changes and
environmental contexts.
Location / Business: Ordos, China.
Government of China for Public Use.
The benefits of big data, such as performance
analysis 
at the building and greater systemic level, will be
increasingly available to influence the design of buildings
and urban resource plans. These trends will also highlight
the development of eco-districts as progressively more
commercially viable design solutions. Simultaneous
trends 
in resource shortages, availability of performance
data, increasing urban density, and investment in the reuse of
materials will enable a transformation from zero net energy
building design to net-positive design.
Urbanisation and development in India and China will
come to define much of the new-build market, providing
opportunities for continued research into masterplanning
and eco-district schemes. Existing building retrofit, as well
as the development of sustainable and smart materials and
components, will take on a heightened priority as resource
shortages make themselves felt. The joint implications of
densification as well as project requirements in regions
without established industrial and regulatory paradigms
for formal construction will pose new challenges in terms
of design, construction, and resource usage for building
designers and project stakeholders.
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Case Study: Vacant Cities
Case Study: Sustainable Urban Civic Buildings
Building Design 2020
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