The Ecological Engineer: Volume One : Keen Engineering

by David Macaulay and Jason McLennan. Ecotone Publishing, LLC, Kansas City, Missouri, 2006. Paperback, 240 pages, $42.95.

The Ecological Engineer tells the story of one firm—Keen Engineering Co., Ltd.—and how it came to be one of North America’s leading providers of green engineering services. It is a compelling story that teaches the reader not only about this firm’s journey into the world of sustainable design, but, more important, about how buildings can be engineered (and designed) to maximize environmental performance.

The book is divided into three sections. The first reviews the history of Keen and how the company came to specialize in green design. It gives significant attention to Keen president Kevin Hydes, P.E., his entry into the green building movement, influences in the greening of his career (including the participation of Bob Berkebile, FAIA, in key early projects), and his guidance of the company’s shift to a sustain-ability focus.

The second section lays out seven guiding principles that Keen Engineering uses in its work, describes Keen’s methodologies for engineering buildings, and addresses in detail specific technological solutions. These solutions are presented in two chapters covering low-tech solutions (natural ventilation, thermal mass, and façade integration) and high-tech solutions (water conservation, rainwater collection and reuse, wastewater treatment, underfloor air distribution, displacement ventilation, and radiant heating and cooling). For many, these chapters will be the most useful part of

The Ecological Engineer. Even though the solutions described are familiar, they are treated here in an integrated fashion, using Keen projects as examples, that demonstrates their effectiveness and adds significantly to the body of available information.

The third section of the book provides five remarkably comprehensive case studies that complement the rest of the book very effectively.

Keen’s transition to a leadership position in sustainable design was accompanied by dramatic growth, eventually reaching some 300 engineers in ten offices. While the bulk of the firm’s work remained in Canada, by 2005 Keen was increasingly joining design teams for leading-edge projects throughout the United States as well. The book closes with an afterword on Keen’s transition to being part of the much larger architecture and engineering firm Stantec, Inc., where Hydes now leads the Building Systems Team and related sustainable development services.

The Ecological Engineer is a must-read for anyone contemplating a career in engineering or wanting to integrate sustainability into an existing engineering practice. But the book should also be on the reading list of all practicing and future architects who want to understand how t work more effectively with engineers.

– Alex Wilson