This year, Ivy Group’s Roofing, Waterproofing, and Coatings Specialist, Dave Griffiths, attended the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) Building Innovation Conference in Washington, DC.
The conference offered 18 seminars, with topics ranging from Building Information Management (BIM), to hospital design, building codes, and more.
“The conference was extremely beneficial,” Dave said. “I was exposed to new ideas and methods.”
A seminar on hospital design discussed the importance of designing buildings with the ability to withstand catastrophic events. The importance of such planning was emphasized with the very real-world example of 2008’s Hurricane Ike hitting the University of Texas Medical Center in Galveston. Much of the hospital facility was destroyed, or rendered unusable.
The hospital has since been rebuilt with modified plans, enabling the hospital to remain fully functional during hurricanes.
This example highlights the importance of working with a building envelope consultant from the get-go when constructing in hurricane-prone, and similarly problematic, areas. Input from technical experts on drawings and plans can prevent costly building damage and risk to human lives during severe weather events.
Another seminar focused on BIM, presenting methods and systems to catalogue equipment, finishes, and complete construction designs, all in one location for permanent future reference. The applications of such systems are numberless, with one valuable possibility being to aid in future building maintenance, or in circumstances when equipment needs to be replaced.
Building upon Ivy Group’s code expertise, Dave also attended a seminar on building codes, which focused primarily on moving towards performance based building requirements, rather than prescriptive requirements. In alignment with Ivy Groups own approach, the seminar proposed the idea that the future of building should be about achieving structural resilience through codes based on scientific data instead of subjective, historic data.
For a more complete overview of the conference’s seminars, NIBS offers detailed recaps on its website.
Between seminars, Dave attended networking lunches where he was able to meet and exchange ideas with other architectural and building experts. After the conference, Dave and his wife toured the National Mall, where they enjoyed many of our nation’s monuments.
