Re-inscribing design work: architects, engineers and efficiency advocates

Panel: Panel 3: Dynamics of Consumption (social and cultural perspectives, actors and their interactions)

Author:
Kathryn B. Janda, University of California at Davis

Abstract

The energy efficiency literature often assumes that building designers are intermediaries in the building design process. Using interview data from architects and engineers, I explore the different roles that these professionals play in building design. To learn how professional cultures affect energy efficeincy decisions, I interviewed 29 designers a decade after they participated in an energy efficiency project to see wheter and how their participation affected their subsequent work. The result show that more engineers than architects designed differently as a result of the project. This paper explores reasons why engineers in the United States may be more likely than architects to be positively influences by their participation in energy efficiency projects. I introduce a model of profession culture to explain this difference, and I argue that in the engineering profession is better situated - in terms of goals, tasks, values, and abilities - than the architectural profession to fulfill the quantitative goals set by energy efficiency advocates. Finally, I suggest two ways in which efficeincy advocates could improve the level of efficiency adoption in practice by responding to the cultural differences of the design professions.