By: Senior Architect Product Specialist Sarah Barrett, Assoc. AIA
Sarah Barrett brings more than a decade of experience as an architect and graphic designer, as well as professional expertise in the field of parametric modeling, to her role as a Senior Architect Product Specialist at Vectorworks, Inc. In addition to serving as an architectural expert and BIM specialist for the company, Sarah helps create best practices for Marionette, the integrated algorithmic modeling tool in Vectorworks software. She also leads webinars and workshops on a variety of industry topics and develops materials to help customers improve their workflows and design processes. Sarah has an M.Arch. from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in architectural studies from Brown University.
‘Sustainable construction’ and ‘green building’ are concepts that have gone from novel to trendy to mainstream over the past few decades. These are both very broad concepts that encompass plenty of different strategies, methodologies, and approaches, and quite often have specific connotations for each individual designer, however, the commonality we all share is creating designs that lead to the health, safety, and welfare of our clients and ourselves.
Sustainable construction and building practices, overall, seek to minimize negative impacts and cultivate long-term positive impacts on all project stakeholders, including occupants, surrounding communities, and developers. There are many methods designers can take to meet this end goal, however, here are a few ways to approach enhancing sustainability.
