Educating the Design Professional: Energy-Conscious Design for Commercial Buildings

Abstract

The energy problem in a residence is substantially different from that in a commercial building; therefore, the approach to using renewable resources in a commercial building differs from that in a residence. For this reason, educational materials, seminars, and workshops developed to teach architects and engineers basic design principles to integrate renewable energy into commercial buildings must differ from that developed for residential building designers. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the differences in approach between residential and commercial solar design, discuss what the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) Commercial Buildings Group has learned about educating commercial building design professionals through experience, and describe the American Institute of Architects (AIA) national effort to educate architects about energy-conscious design.