How to Use The Toolkit

“Studs are placed 16” on center, windows are kept below 40% of wall area”

Designing a building is a complicated endeavor. Architects are expected to dream up imaginary worlds and then guide the transformation of these images into physical reality. If this weren't difficult enough, it all has to be done on a schedule and within a budget. The resulting building needs to stand up, not burn down, keep water out, manage heat, relate to its surroundings, and generally delight its occupants. On top of this, architecture doesn’t get the benefit of an extensive period of trial and error, a custom designed building needs to function from day one.

In order to accomplish such a Herculean feat, architects would need to be masters of physics, chemistry, biology, economics, sociology, art history, logistics, human relationships, and a whole suite of other disciplines that are tangentially related to the built environment. In reality, architects don't know everything. We’re generalists who need to understand just enough about each field to ask the right questions at the right time with the right people. Learning and implementing best practices and general rules is how architects size beams, lay out kitchens, design parking structures, and create comfortable courtyards. To design a high performing building, there’s no need to spend years learning the inner workings of an energy model or the chemical composition if drywall. Just like all other aspects of design, understanding and implementing a suite of best practices is the most effective strategy for improving the performance of every building.

The COTE Top Ten Toolkit exemplifies a philosophy of best practices. For each COTE Top Ten Measure, the toolkit presents concise, simple, and easy to implement design strategies. The toolkit is not a textbook with thorough explanations of why the best practices are effective, nor does it go into detail with unusual cases or qualifications. It simply lists strategies that can be incorporated into the vast majority of buildings to improve their performance.

These best practices can be incorporated into a project in a variety of ways and can be used to facilitate your client’s understanding and decision making process:

Charrette Planning: When planning a design charrette or any sort of team kick-off meeting, the measure topic areas can serve as organizing elements and discussion points. This way a broad range of topics are covered and important areas aren’t left out.

Project Goal Setting: Specific best practices design strategies presented in the toolkit can be used as project goals. During a design charrette, or just early in a project, the the design team can review best practices and strategies that stand out, and establish project goals that can be tracked throughout the design process.

Benchmarking: The COTE Top Ten Measures reference many metrics for objectively tracking project performance. This guide, and the accompanying Super Spreadsheet can help teams benchmark their projects’ metrics to see how they stand in comparison to other buildings of a similar type.

Understanding the Correct Range: Building performance metrics fall in typical ranges, and it can be easy to determine if something is off, and may require a second look, by comparing calculated metrics to their expected ranges. The accompanying “Super Spreadsheet” has a color coded system to ensure these calculated metrics are inline with what makes sense.

Understanding how design decisions affect outcomes: Once a project team understands where its building stands through benchmarking, implementing additional best practices can help optimize performance.