The Evolution of Design Process - Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering - page 8

of the required systems and that they all fit within the skeletal frame developed
in the schematics phase.
Technical Detailing and Documentation/Implementation
In the traditional linear model, the focus of the design team shifts from design
conception and development to implementation. This transition in focus to the
production of technical documents required to communicate the assembly of the
design proposal coincides with a dramatic shift away from further synthesis and
innovation. Computer-aided design and drafting (CADD), although a relatively
new technology, has resulted in dramatic improvements in efficiency but has
remained anchored in the processes and methods of the past. While design and
drafting are given equal importance in the naming of the tool, the first several
generations of this tool's development provided essentially an electronic pencil
for drafting, with great new features representing the integration of a number of
previously separate and singularly purposed tools: scales for measuring; line and
arc function commands replacing T-squares, parallel bars, and compass; and the
delete key rendering the eraser obsolete and eradicating all past sins committed
in ink.
A TRANSITIONAL MODEL
A linear model of the type we have described, which has remained relatively
unchanged for decades, is now beginning to experience significant evolution.
The means for ensuring sustainability has been achieved using accountability
point systems, such those in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental De-
sign (LEED), BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), and Green
Globes. Such documentation and recognition of “greenness” has emerged to
encourage design and construction professionals to create projects with an eye
toward environmental quality. They have often focused on uncovering options
that will mitigate a proposed project's environmental impacts. As such, these sys-
tems have profoundly changed the design process by moving up the technical
input to the earlier phases of a project's development.
In addition to “greening” proposals, designs now undergo a series of integra-
tion steps, which have been articulated by Mendler et al. 5 :
1. Project description
2. Team building