Being Sustainable: Building Systems Performance

The book uses a graphic narrative style. The plot of this narrative follows the sequence of system installations, each in support of the other, but all crowded into the same space.

The characters in this narrative are the engineers who size and specify each of these systems and the subcontractors who must coordinate, compromise, and assemble them in the real world.

The plot of the story and art of construction is in the hands of these characters because no two of them would ever build their systems exactly the same. Important to readers is that the interactive models and videos on the book’s CD are an integral part of a broader multimedia learning experience.

The idea is to use the book’s printed pages as a guide in order to actually enter, explore and deconstruct the system models on the CD. Feel free to reach out, walk around, and orbit these models and use Google's free SketchUp tools to take the systems a part and put them back together in new ways. Only then will the book fulfill its goal. A sustainable building is an integrated system of often diverse and conflicting parts that must be carefully engineered and installed to function as a sustainable building.