by Brianna Crandall — September 23, 2015—More high-performance buildings are to be expected in the future as the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has partnered with nonprofit research organization Architecture 2030 and AIA Seattle to launch the first course in the new AIA+2030 Online Series, an educational program aimed at providing AIA members and other design professionals with the high-performance building knowledge necessary to meet the 2030 Challenge targets.
Sponsored by Autodesk and delivered through AIAU, the AIA’s online education portal, the ten one-hour courses of the Online Series are based on the highly successful AIA+2030 Professional Series that has been offered to over 30 percent of AIA’s membership in 25 markets throughout the United States.
An AIA and Architecture 2030 co-production, the AIA+2030 Online Series helps design professionals create next-generation buildings that meet the energy efficiency targets of Architecture 2030’s 2030 Challenge, offering strategies to reach a minimum of a 70-percent reduction in building energy consumption and fossil fuel greenhouse gas emissions today, ramping up to new buildings using no greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuel energy by 2030.
These energy consumption reductions result in significant savings in energy costs, and the ability to design such high-performing buildings provides firms with capabilities that set them apart in the marketplace, says AIA.
According to the providers, the AIA+2030 Online Series goes beyond theory-based education by providing practitioners with actionable tools and methodologies that directly impact building design and performance.
“This is the first comprehensive program in the U.S. that educates the architectural profession in specific design and technology applications to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions,” said Edward Mazria, Architecture 2030 founder and CEO.
“In order to make significant progress towards energy reduction targets, we’re acting to increase energy literacy within the profession,” said AIA EVP / CEO, Robert Ivy, FAIA. “This series will help showcase the power that early conceptual analysis has to increase the ability of architects to build bottom-line value into their design projects.”
Twenty-five AIA Chapters and organizations from across North America have currently offered the in-person AIA+2030 Professional Series, created by AIA Seattle and Architecture 2030 with support from the City of Seattle and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEP). The complementary AIA+2030 Online Series will have the potential to reach more than 80,000 geographically diverse design professionals in all 286 AIA Chapters.
The second and third courses of the AIA+2030 Online Series are slated for release this fall, and the remaining courses will be released incrementally, with the full series available by the summer of 2016. A video overview of the Online Series is available for viewing.
