The Gateway Gardens project has officially broken ground starting with the demolition of a few abandoned and condemned houses along 97th Avenue in NE Portland. This phase of construction was handled with more caution and care than an average demolition process because materials from these old houses are being sorted and recycled. This process certainly ads time to the project but we believe the 13 truck loads of 100% recycled material we salvaged was worth it. A more formal term for this process would be “building deconstruction”. Essentially deconstruction is the selective dismantlement of building components, specifically for re-use, recycling, and waste management. It differs from demolition where a site is cleared of its building by the fastest means possible. Deconstruction has also been defined as “construction in reverse”. The process of dismantling structures is an ancient activity that has been revived by the growing field of sustainable, green building. Buildings, like everything, have a life-cycle. Deconstruction focuses on giving the materials within a building a new life once the building as a whole can no longer continue.
Although many of the materials collected in the deconstruction process are fit to be recycled, these materials are unfit to be repurposed for the new construction of Gateway Gardens because of their inconsistent nature and condition. The four proposed buildings for Gateway Gardens have already been engineered based on a series of sustainable factors ranging from the bare bones of framing to decorative detailing in railings and siding types.
The new construction process for The Gardens promises to pay off in ways other than recycling. The Gardens will be built under LEED enforced regulations regarding something called Embodied Energy. The term embodied energy is defined as "the sum of energy inputs (fuels/power, materials, human resources etc) that was used in the work to make any product, from the point of extraction and refining materials, bringing it to market, and disposal / re-purposing of it. Embodied energy is an accounting methodology which aims to find the sum total of the energy necessary for an entire product lifecycle. This lifecycle includes raw material extraction, transport, manufacture, assembly, installation, disassembly, deconstruction and/or decomposition." (Wikipedia)
Our crew at Miranda Industries is constantly developing new strategies to save time, costs, fuel, and any other types of energy that we use to build our homes. Our biggest saver is having each part of the building pre-manufactured and ready for assembly. This way we save on time by getting more accomplished in a quicker time frame. We also don’t end up with extra manufactured parts which would waste materials and the energy it took to create those materials. Also, steel is lighter and more predictable than wood allowing for easier transport on the job site (less heavy lifting for our crew) and more secure connections between building components.
Transportation is another issue when it comes to conserving energy. We are able to avoid a huge percentage of trips to the job site by having sets of framing packages on site and ready for installation. There will be no time wasted in finding particular measurements of joists or studs on site because these panels have already been programmed and assembled. The more our crew gets accomplished per day, the less days and trips (embodied energy) they will have to spend throughout the process.
Using the right materials in the correct way is also a large component of the building process for Gateway Gardens. Typically, steel framed buildings are thought to develop thermal bridging between stud connections and the outside air because metal is such a great conductor for thermal energy. Thermal bridging is created when materials that are poor thermal insulators come into contact, allowing heat to flow through the path of least thermal resistance. This leads to infiltration which is essentially, the leakage of outside air to the inside of the building. Proper insulation is the key to solving this problem and preventing infiltration from occurring. We use spray foam insulation instead of typical blown or batt insulation because it is able to mask each metal connector from conducting any unwanted thermal energy.
Creative engineering is also a major factor in calculating our amount of embodied energy. Our engineering department at Miranda is aggressively researching possible floor systems and we have narrowed in on two options. One of those options is The Bubble Deck System. Basically this system distributes the weight of the building in multiple directions throughout the slab with its incredibly innovative design which is a series of gridded spheres that are sandwiched between two concrete slabs and reinforced with rebar. This system is great not only for using completely recycled materials but it also drastically cuts structural components and associated costs. The Bubble Deck system will reduce the amount of concrete needed for each slab by 35% and saves 50% with the same bearing effect. This means less materials required for structural support below and less usage of expended energy in development.
Miranda’s process of both site preparation and building construction along with creative engineering and proper use of materials has given us merit in what is both a true sustainable process as well as a sustainable product. We do whatever we can to conserve energy in both our building process and the life of the building, Gateway Gardens is sure to be an excellent example.
Although many of the materials collected in the deconstruction process are fit to be recycled, these materials are unfit to be repurposed for the new construction of Gateway Gardens because of their inconsistent nature and condition. The four proposed buildings for Gateway Gardens have already been engineered based on a series of sustainable factors ranging from the bare bones of framing to decorative detailing in railings and siding types.
The new construction process for The Gardens promises to pay off in ways other than recycling. The Gardens will be built under LEED enforced regulations regarding something called Embodied Energy. The term embodied energy is defined as "the sum of energy inputs (fuels/power, materials, human resources etc) that was used in the work to make any product, from the point of extraction and refining materials, bringing it to market, and disposal / re-purposing of it. Embodied energy is an accounting methodology which aims to find the sum total of the energy necessary for an entire product lifecycle. This lifecycle includes raw material extraction, transport, manufacture, assembly, installation, disassembly, deconstruction and/or decomposition." (Wikipedia)
Our crew at Miranda Industries is constantly developing new strategies to save time, costs, fuel, and any other types of energy that we use to build our homes. Our biggest saver is having each part of the building pre-manufactured and ready for assembly. This way we save on time by getting more accomplished in a quicker time frame. We also don’t end up with extra manufactured parts which would waste materials and the energy it took to create those materials. Also, steel is lighter and more predictable than wood allowing for easier transport on the job site (less heavy lifting for our crew) and more secure connections between building components.
Transportation is another issue when it comes to conserving energy. We are able to avoid a huge percentage of trips to the job site by having sets of framing packages on site and ready for installation. There will be no time wasted in finding particular measurements of joists or studs on site because these panels have already been programmed and assembled. The more our crew gets accomplished per day, the less days and trips (embodied energy) they will have to spend throughout the process.
Using the right materials in the correct way is also a large component of the building process for Gateway Gardens. Typically, steel framed buildings are thought to develop thermal bridging between stud connections and the outside air because metal is such a great conductor for thermal energy. Thermal bridging is created when materials that are poor thermal insulators come into contact, allowing heat to flow through the path of least thermal resistance. This leads to infiltration which is essentially, the leakage of outside air to the inside of the building. Proper insulation is the key to solving this problem and preventing infiltration from occurring. We use spray foam insulation instead of typical blown or batt insulation because it is able to mask each metal connector from conducting any unwanted thermal energy.
Creative engineering is also a major factor in calculating our amount of embodied energy. Our engineering department at Miranda is aggressively researching possible floor systems and we have narrowed in on two options. One of those options is The Bubble Deck System. Basically this system distributes the weight of the building in multiple directions throughout the slab with its incredibly innovative design which is a series of gridded spheres that are sandwiched between two concrete slabs and reinforced with rebar. This system is great not only for using completely recycled materials but it also drastically cuts structural components and associated costs. The Bubble Deck system will reduce the amount of concrete needed for each slab by 35% and saves 50% with the same bearing effect. This means less materials required for structural support below and less usage of expended energy in development.
Miranda’s process of both site preparation and building construction along with creative engineering and proper use of materials has given us merit in what is both a true sustainable process as well as a sustainable product. We do whatever we can to conserve energy in both our building process and the life of the building, Gateway Gardens is sure to be an excellent example.
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