Performance
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a place to share ideas
Incorporating renewable energy, such as Photovoltaic (PV) panels, into a building design is a highly effective strategy for improve building performance -- including a reduced power bill -- and reduced on-site fossil fuel consumption. Therefore, we strive to run a simulation on every project to facilitate a discussion with our clients around PV potential for a specific project even though every Lake|Flato project does not always include them. This post will highlight our process, including our simulation tool, how we calculate the energy offset, and PV array size. PV Tool Without getting into...
311 Third Street, our San Antonio office, was built in 1920 and was originally designed for Hupmobile , an automobile company. “In 1985, David and Ted bought partial ownership in the building, and started Lake|Flato Architects on the south side of the second floor. The firm expanded to the second floor north side in 1990, the third floor in 2003 (when Ted and David took full ownership), and the entire first floor in 2005. In 2008 we completed a full renovation of the main level." (to read the full story check out: Better Know an L|F Project: 311 Third Street | Lake Flato ) Today (2021), we...
This May 19th-23rd, hundreds of academic researchers and design practitioners will gather virtually for the 52 nd annual Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) conference to share new research-based knowledge about the built environment, with a focus this year on just environments. Presentations in the past have covered topics as wide-ranging as design technology, sustainability art, ecodistricts, and workplace design, with most work addressing some aspect of the climate crisis, wellness and/or equity. Besides allowing fun glimpses into countless ongoing research efforts, EDRA...
Design Performance at Lake|Flato Architects The mission of the Design Performance team at Lake|Flato is to be the preeminent international practice for the integration of design and sustainability. Design performance provides a clear path to achieving this vision by integrating design with building performance, technology, research, and innovation. Here at Lake|Flato, there are three tiers of communication employed throughout our firm to support projects and promote design performance. It starts with the firm’s dedicated design performance team who is dedicated to advancing sustainability in...
Lake|Flato is passionate about public service and sharing our design and sustainability expertise. We are a committed member of Public Architecture's 1+ program, which fulfills a yearly pledge to contribute at least 1% of our design staff's total project hours toward pro bono design work focused on non-profit clients working for the public good. We have added a new project, the Kelso House, to our 1+ pledge this year. Kelso House is a historic Monte Vista home designed by Atlee B. Ayres for Judge Winchester Kelso in 1906. The property was later donated by Cappy Lawton to San Antonio’s Power...
Each of these radial calendars represent one year of building energy use for a few different buildings that Lake Flato has studied in the past few years. Each dot represents one hour of energy use, with a larger dot indicating more energy used. The color of each dot represents the outside temperature, from 40°F in blue, to 90°F in red. Midnight is on the inside of the circle, with 11 pm on the outside. Lake Flato monitors the energy use of several buildings as a means to learn more about how energy is actually used after a house or building is occupied. The energy use is often radically...
Click here to listen to Flake Radio Episode #1: Resilience Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity. Related to the built environment, it describes the design strategies that can help buildings or communities survive natural or human caused disasters, and to thrive in their aftermath. In this podcast we reflect on our experiences with hurricanes Harvey and Irma and explore the resilient design strategies that will allow our projects to support their communities during times of crisis.
Congratulations to the Knox project team for delivering the first newly constructed campus facility since the early 70's and important part of the Knox College commitment to liberal arts education. "Our new building is a delight...designed for teaching multiple art disciplines, the abundance of light-filled open work areas, studio space, and a gallery-like two-story critique hall enhance student learning and imagination. It also directly impacts our effectiveness as teachers and promotes student’s ability to think of themselves as artists, not just students.” - Mark Holmes, Associate...
Architects have always had to deal with the challenges of solar energy, whether providing protection from it, or leveraging it for energy and daylight. Like many other challenges, we have a habit of throwing brute force technology at it to solve the problem at hand. Building technologies of the past were simple and utilitarian by necessity, and today, we are finally returning to the simplicity of the past with elegant, biomemetic solutions. Lake Flato recently established a research and development program with the goal of providing a framework to promote innovative thinking in the...
A group of Lake|Flatonians traveled to Orlando, Florida recently to participate in this year’s AIA Conference on Architecture. This year’s theme was “Anticipate” – what it means to anticipate need and change in architecture and design. The profession has encountered challenges around climate change , diversity , and social consciousness in recent history, so it was interesting to overlay those discussions with the conference theme. Perhaps the most anticipated conference event was Michelle Obama in her first public appearance since leaving the White House in January. Her keynote speech was...
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