DGNB certified Healthcare Centres: – decision‐making and design process

In recent years, research and the building industry greatly focused on lowering and optimising the energy use of buildings during operation. It has resulted in several pilot projects which illustrate how it can be achieved. At the same time voluntary sustainability certification schemes (BEAM, LEED, DGNB), have been developed around the world ‐ certification schemes that have a broader approach to sustainability than solely energy. Recently, a Danish sustainable certification scheme (DGNB‐DK) has been developed. The scheme is voluntarily, however more and more clients have requirements for sustainability and wants a certification. This research investigates the decision‐making and design process (DMaDP) behind four DGNB certified Healthcare Centres (HCC) in Northern Jutland in Denmark. In general, knowledge about the DMaDP is important. However it is important to know what part DGNB plays in an already highly complex design processes; does it become even more complex? What can we learn from these projects about future DMaDP in DGNB certified projects?The research project is setup as a case study design, where the HCC act as four cases. We analyse the DMaDP behind the four HCC using qualitative interviews of key actors in each design team. Each interview is analysed individually and summarised in a report. Finally the four cases are analysed in a comparative study which draw a picture of what kind of DMaDP the DGNB certified HCC have had. At time of writing the analysis of the interviews are in process. However, the preliminary result show on one side very little needs to be changed compared to a “traditional” design process and on the other side some things need to be considered when planning the process. Firstly, some believe DGNB just requires adding one more discipline into the project like the architect, the construction engineer, the plumbing engineer etc. which overlap professional field just like other disciplines. Secondly, the general conception is that DGNB brings in limited new things into the project, but it gives a common notion of sustainability which usually can be discussed. At the same time it made the design teams work more conscious with sustainable initiatives. Nevertheless, different perceptions of when and how the DGNB consultant and engineers should be part of the initial sketching phases exist. Some believe there need be at first architectural idea. Others believe a dialog about DGNB and energy concept is important even before anyone start sketching. Experiences with the different approaches will be further outlined in the paper.Future research has the intention to collect further knowledge about DGNB and DMaDP in practise. This project was limited to Healthcare Centres, which was certified as office buildings, however more traditional office buildings might differ en experience with DGNB.