Lifecycle Building Challenge Winners Announced

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency, The American Institute of Architects, the Building Materials Reuse Association, and West Coast Green have announced the winners of the Lifecycle Building Challenge (see EBNVol. 16, No. 3). Created to recognize innovations in building disassembly and materials reuse, the competition invited both built and unbuilt entries in three categories: buildings, components, and services. Judges, including EBN executive editor Alex Wilson, chose nine winners and thirteen honorable mentions. One winner from each category is featured below; more on the winners can be found at www.lifecyclebuilding.org.

• The Pavilion in the Park, designed by David Miller of the Miller|Hull Partnership in Seattle, consists of four modules, each supported by two four-sided steel frames and set on concrete piers. Currently housing an exhibit on the history of Seattle’s South Lake Union region, the building will move over time through several neighborhoods and was designed to be flexible enough to house many different exhibitions. All interior and exterior finishes have temporary joints between modules, making disassembly and relocation easier; adjustable ramps to the entrances will allow the building to adjust to varying topography.

• A drywall attachment system, Green-Zip-Tape was among the winners in the component category. Designed to ease the removal of drywall for repairs, the self-adhesive, fiberglass-mesh drywall tape is applied in much the same way as standard tape, but a tail is left exposed at the bottom of the wall and hidden under molding. When deconstruction is needed, this tab can be pulled, exposing the drywall seam and screws below. Among its other benefits, the product, from Tax Advantage Design in Houston, may help taxpayers depreciate drywall on a faster schedule.

• In the service category, a new profession of deconstruction engineering was among the winners. Students at California Polytechnic State University proposed that a deconstruction engineer work with a design team at the beginning of the building process to ensure that a building would be easy to disassemble at the end of its life. The profession would also overseeing deconstruction.