HGA Architects and Engineers (HGA) will host "Traject: Behavior, Design, and Innovation in Sustainability" as part of the fifth annual “World Usability Day 2009: Designing for a Sustainable World,” at its Minneapolis office on November 12th. Sponsored by the Minnesota Chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA), this interactive evening event will feature a range of nationally renowned speakers in sustainable practices, including HGA sustainable-design experts Patrick Thibaudeau, LEED AP, and Amy Douma, LEED AP.
"From the macro to the micro, we’ll present vignettes of sustainability through the lens of various industries, including energy management, product design, architecture, behavioral science, and others," says Suzanne Currie, president of Minnesota UPA and user experience designer with HGA.
Patrick Thibaudeau, CSI, CCS, LEED AP, vice president of HGA’s sustainable design practice, will speak on "Greening in a Different Color: An Architect’s Perspective on Innovating Lasting Human Eco-Experiences." The session will explore usability experiences on various scales—from the individual human scale to the global scale and back—to touch on how we interact with building design and how products and buildings relate to each other.
"When we touch and engage well-designed furniture, products, equipment and the built environment, our experiences set a path to sustainability results," Thibaudeau says. "If our experience with a space or product is not exceptional, that product will not last. It results in a wasted opportunity and waste of space, materials, energy and opportunity. We can do better."
Thibaudeau has worked on many national projects that follow such sustainable-design guidelines as The LEED Green Building Rating System™; the State of Minnesota Sustainable Building Guidelines (MSBG) Buildings, Benchmarks & Beyond (B3); and the Green Guide for Healthcare™. He is part of a national group of large architecture firms that supports the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) 2030 Goals for carbon neutral buildings by the year 2030.
Amy Douma, LEED AP, associate vice president and architectural designer with HGA’s Healthcare Practice Group, will participate in a panel discussion focusing on sustainability in healthcare design. The panel will consider how sustainable issues impact facilities from site selection to the architecture, building systems, and products. Panel members include Brad Lohrding, vice president design at Logic Product Development; and Curt McNamara, PE, principal at Logic Product Development and a founder of the sustainability certification at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
"Sustainable healthcare design is challenging due to energy demands, regulatory requirements and other matters—but progress is being made," Douma says. Douma is the co-founder and chair of HGA’s Healthcare "Green Team," which works to educate clients about sustainable design and incorporate sustainable principles into all healthcare projects.
Other speakers throughout the evening will include Terry Gips, economist, ecologist, and adjunct faculty at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design; Dr. Christie Manning, visiting assistant professor of environmental studies at Macalester College; and Lester Shen, director of innovation at the Center for Energy and Environment.
World Usability Day was founded in 2005 as an initiative of the Usability Professionals’ Association to ensure that services and products important to human life are easier to access and simpler to use. Each year on the second Thursday of November, more than 200 events are organized in more than 43 countries around the world to raise awareness for the general public, and train professionals in the tools and issues central to good usability research, development and practice. Visit the Usability Professionals’ Association at www.upassoc.org.
—Nielsen Business Media
