Healthcare Design - March 2019 - 16

DATA
Q+A

MINING

when it comes to performance data, people like absolutes. They want a clear goal and a specific result.
But with energy performance, absolutes aren't
easy to establish. I often use the analogy of prescribing drugs. Understanding a drug's potency is
only half the battle, as you then need to understand
how often a patient can take it. We have to help
healthcare leaders look at data the same way, with
ranges and different possibilities based on the accuracy of user data and client feedback.

Amir Rezaei, high-performance building analyst at
CannonDesign (Buffalo, N.Y.), explains why using data
can help ensure project teams are building the right
resilient structures and how his role contributes to the
design process
Healthcare Design : You're a high-performance
building analyst. What exactly does that mean?
Amir Rezaei: I'm essentially a subject-matter assistant
to our design teams. As they work on projects across all
the markets we serve, they come to me for guidance or
with questions. How much insulation does this building
require? Which chiller should I use? I analyze the building data and project design and make recommendations to ensure our projects meet/exceed energy codes and performance targets.
What design elements/characteristics must a building possess to be
considered high performance?
Part of answering that question is defining high performance. For me, a highperformance building is one that consumes the least amount of energy while
still ensuring occupant comfort. With that as the definition, it's then all about
how you integrate disciplines and balance low- and high-performance elements to drive overall performance.
Just as there are myriad ways to score a touchdown in football, there are
numerous ways to achieve high performance. You can have a building with
high insulation and weak HVAC performance and another building with a
very sophisticated HVAC but code-level insulation that achieves the same
overall performance. It's all about how you integrate, balance, and maximize
synergies in the design.
How does your role apply to creating more resilient buildings?
When it comes to resiliency, my focus is on passive survivability. I can help
health systems "emulate" power outage scenarios before they happen. So
when an actual storm or other disturbance causes a hospital to lose power,
they know exactly how much time they have before patients and staff face
hazardous indoor temperatures. We also help them understand the best
areas in the building-where it's less cold or hot-to move patients to when
these dire situations arise. Having this information makes healthcare buildings more resilient and can save lives.
How, specifically, do you approach energy use on healthcare projects?
Due to the large, sophisticated equipment healthcare facilities rely on, these
buildings inherently have high power loads you cannot easily trim or predict. Knowing this, our team puts special focus on user data when it comes to
healthcare. How often will MRIs be used over the course of a week or a year?
Those kinds of questions.
Securing reliable user data can be a real challenge before the building is
built and user behavior is realized. And often we have to present our data
back in the form of performance ranges. This is another challenge, because

MARCH 2019

Could you give us an example of how your
work recently contributed to the design of a
healthcare project?
We're working with Dignity Health on its new
women's and children's tower, and what's really
fascinating with this project is we're contractually
bound to hit specific energy targets. In this case,
our team's design and financial success on the project is bound to building performance. I think you'll
see more and more performance contracting like
this moving forward.
How does a better performing healthcare facility become a more resilient one?
It's all about balancing design elements. Sometimes design elements that ensure high performance are actually bad for resiliency. For example,
if you have a building that is highly insulated with
non-operable windows, that's really good for highperformance but it's not ideal for facilities in hot
climates when the power goes out and you can't
open the window. High-performance and resiliency can work hand-in-hand for projects, but you
need to think about them holistically.
What do you wish more people understood
about how data can inform design?
First and foremost, data is different from information or insight. If you don't package data appropriately so people can use it, it means nothing.
The key is effectively visualizing data so people can
understand it, and also delivering data at the right
moments in the design process when decisions are
being made. Far too often, data is realized after design decisions it would have positively impacted
have been made. We need to speed the data collection process to a point where it matches the speed
of design.-Jennifer Kovacs Silvis

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Healthcare Design - March 2019

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